


Contracts and Cake

by LottieHolmes



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-28
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-26 05:15:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 23,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3838495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LottieHolmes/pseuds/LottieHolmes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Present day AU. Ciel Phantomhive, a boy with traumatic childhood and a dangerous habit is made to attend school by his aunt. On his first day a bored teenager called Sebastian Michaelis discovers his secret and is determined to have fun with it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Puke and Carrot Cake

**Contracts and Cake**

**Chapter 1:**

Early in the morning of a cold winter's day, Ciel Phantomhive alighted from his aunt's car and gulped at the imposing sight in front of him. Beyond the metal gates in front of him was his local secondary school which was cobbled together from new and old buildings. The reason he found such a normal sight so intimidating was that it was his first ever day of school.

School meant that he would just be one small person in a mass of students and even more terrifyingly he would have to interact with other people his age which was something that he detested greatly due to the fact that he had spent his childhood devoid of contact from people that were not related to him and the more people that saw him the more chance there was that someone would see the cut marks on his wrists.

He fingered his eye patch nervously and smoothed out his black trousers and blazer before poking his head back into his aunt's car for one final attempt at persuading her out of her idea.

"Aunt Angelina, do I have to go? I stick out a mile and people will bully me," he whined before attempting a manipulative puppy dog look.

His red haired aunt gazed at him unsympathetically and leaned over to push his head out of her car.

"No Ciel. It's time you met other people your own age and made friends. I know that you're extremely intelligent from all the books you read and the tutors I hired, but you need the experience of going to school."

"But Aunt An-"

"I can't believe you're related to me sometime," she sighed before softening. "It's for the best Ciel. Remember your cousin Lizzie is in your year so you can ask for help if you get lost and you can hide your eyepatch with your hair. Bye."

She pulled the car door closed and drove off with a squeal of gears leaving a trail of exhaust fumes behind her.

"That is not a comforting thought," he muttered and began walking to his personal hell.

After a brief 20 minute talk with the headmaster in his cluttered office Ciel was led to his first lesson of the day-English. He hoped that his class would be studying a sophisticated book rather than the tosh he had heard was taught in state schools.

The man who was leading him was his new form tutor who felt pity for the slip of a boy waling behind him with a deep frown, a heavy back pack, sleeves pulled over his wrists. He decided that a few words of comfort were needed to cheer the boy up.

"Now Ciel, school isn't as bad as it may seem at first. Just smile, talk and you will make plenty of friends," he smiled as an example.

Ciel simply nodded. He was incapable of smiling naturally and his aunt claimed that his fake smile would care small children away. That didn't matter though: he wasn't in any need of friends.

"Ah room 103. We're here," the teacher stopped outside the door and Ciel patted his hair to make sure that it was obscuring his eye patch on his right eye.

The teacher opened the door and the class' attention instantly switched to the boy in the doorway. All apart from the dark haired teenager in the back row who was doodling aimlessly in his exercise book.

Ciel felt as if he would combust on the spot from all the stares that everyone was giving him. The English teacher cleared her throat and brought the class' attention back to her.

"You must be Ciel Phantomhive. Your seat is the one over there," she pointed to a table in the second row from the back in front of the scowling black haired teenager who was now staring at Ciel along with the rest of the class.

As she spoke Ciel absorbed the details of the room to see if it matched his prediction of what secondary school was like. There was a whiteboard with a projector at the front of the room and the back wall was lined with bookshelves. The walls were a pungent shade of yellow and the chairs were bright blue and plastic. It did match his preconception of secondary school although he had been expecting worse.

As he took his seat and sat down his ears heated up as he overheard the whispered comments of his classmates. They were concerning his gender, how cute he was and the peculiarity of his name. At least no one had spotted his eye patch or noted that his sleeves were pulled down.

He eyed the boy sitting next to him nervously as he was very burly, smelled strongly of smoke and his uniform looked almost as if it had been burnt in a fire.

"What is your name?" he asked politely after he had been handed a blank exercise book and reading book. "I'm Ciel."

"Me? I'm Bard. Wow, you speak really poshly," he gasped.

Please don't tell me I have to sit next to this moron for the rest of the year, Ciel groaned internally. He prayed that the people in the remainder of his classes would be smarter than Bard.

"Um Ciel, can I ask you a question?" Bard leaned towards him hesitantly.

Ciel coughed at the strong odour of smoke coming from him.

"You already asked me one," he sighed. "What is it?"

He hoped that it would be a sensible question, then he noticed that the rest of the class were staring at them and listening in.

"Are you a girl or a boy?"

That was the last thing that he had expected to hear. Was it really that hard to work out? He was wearing the male school uniform and used a backpack. He sucked his breath in to calm in himself down before he answered.

"I am a boy."

He heard the boy behind him snicker and he turned round in his seat to glare at him. Their eyes met: azure to scarlet and Ciel felt a strange feeling that he had never felt before- a pleasant, light and floaty feeling. Unsure of what it meant he glared at him before turning around to face the teacher her give her his full attention.

"In preparation for the exam we will be studying "Of Mice and Men" and analysing the themes and symbolism," she announced as Ciel picked up the copy of the book that was on his desk and let out a small groan. He had studied the book before with his English tutor and had written several essays about it. To rehash it all now would be painful like trying to squeeze blood out of a stone.

However for Ciel, one good thing came out of his first lesson at school that he hadn't known before: he learnt the name of the teenager that had laughed at him when the teacher had shouted at him for sleeping in class.

Sebastian Michaelis.

As soon as the bell rang to signal the end of school Ciel bolted to the nearest boy's toilets to rid himself of the after effects of his unhealthy school lunch. He locked the cubicle door behind him and threw up his pizza, chips and carrot cake.

There was one thing he was sure of: tomorrow he was bringing his own lunch. Greasy school food did not suit his metabolism. The carrot cake had been nice, he reflected, although a little dry.

Someone banged the door of the cubicle next to him and he his haste to throw up he had forgotten to check if the bathroom was empty. He hoped that it was someone that wouldn't tell other people that they had heard him throwing up. He straightened his uniform and flushed the toilet before walking out to wash his hands.

"So you're a bulimic then, Ciel," the other occupant of the bathroom turned round as he washed his hands and Ciel saw Sebastian Michaelis properly for the first time that day.

He had long black hair with longer parts at the front that covered parts of his pale face and there were black earphones hanging out of his blazer. Under his eyes were defined black bags, suggesting that he had had lots of late nights.

"I didn't throw up deliberately," Ciel protested vehemently. "I think I have food poisoning from the school lunch."

Sebastian grinned like a Cheshire cat. "Sounds like someone is in denial. Wait a second," he said as he looked down at Ciel's wrists.

Ciel pulled his sleeves down, but it was too late. Sebastian grabbed his arm and pushed back one of the sleeves of his blazer to reveal a set of slash marks criss crossing his arms and wrist. Some were faded, but others were more recent, highlighted by the whiteness of the skin and skinniness of his wrist.

"So as well as being a Bulimic you cut yourself too," he shook his head. "You're one messed up kid, Phantomhive."

Angry at being caught out Ciel snatched his arm from the other teenager's grip.

"It's none of your business Sebastian Michaelis. You don't know anything about me," he shouted and stormed out the door.

Sebastian watched his exit silently before smiling to himself. Now something new had come along to ease his boredom for while.

"Trust me Phantomhive, I'm going to make it my business and have some fun," he said softly to himself.

 

This is not a good idea.

Ciel paused with the razor in his hand, ready to cut. He had been about to cut to calm himself down when the image Sebastian Michaelis' smirking face had flashed in his head and he realised that a fresh cut would add more fuel to the fire if the annoyance decided to expose him the next day. No, he would have to wait until the marks faded or Sebastian left him alone. He had sensed that the teenager had been sadistically enjoying himself throughout their altercation.

He sighed and replaced the razor back in its hiding place under the loose floorboard. Now he had nothing to block out the trauma from the past.

Ciel wrapped himself in his duvet and perched himself on the windowsill to look out at the night sky. There was a full moon shining down surrounded by twinkling stars. Sometimes he wished that he didn't exist as a human and was a non-thinking organism like a star, a ball of dust and gas powered by hydrogen with no memories of the past and nothing to worry about especially not sadistic dark haired males.

At 1 o'clock in the morning, when he had finally got into bed to attempt getting some sleep, his aunt came rushing into his room, brimming full of questions. She sat down on the edge of his bed, knowing that he was still awake from the rate of his breathing.

"Ciel, how was your first day at school?" she asked happily, not caring about the late time.

Her nephew twitched his uncovered eye and rolled over to face the wall. "Terrible, thank you very much."

Angelina pulled the covers of him and pulled him into a hug, undeterred by his coldness- she was used to it now.

"I'm sorry for being so late. I had a long shift, then I got invited to a party..." She apologised feeling guilty about how much she neglected him at times when he needed company the most. "What went wrong?"

Automatically Ciel pulled away from her and subtly glanced at his pyjama sleeves to make sure that his wrists were covered. She was unaware of his habit as he was always careful to keep his arms covered around her and do it when she wasn't at home.

"Everything. They all thought I was a girl, the lessons are so boring, everyone is as dumb as an ant, I threw up after eating lunch, and…" "

And what?" she prompted, noticing his pause. "Nothing. I'm taking my own lunch tomorrow by the way."

He knew he would never be able to tell her what had happened in the toilets. That would mean that she would find out everything and would want to keep a permanent eye on him and quit her job and he didn't want her to have to do that to look after him.

"So you are going tomorrow," she smiled, fully aware that he was keeping something back.

"I lost that game against you so I have to go to school for at least a week," Ciel mumbled. "A true Phantomhive keeps his word."

His aunt patted him on the head. "That's my boy."

"Damn it, she did this deliberately," Ciel cursed out loud.

There was nothing suitable to take to school for lunch. The kitchen cupboards were all empty of food apart from cereal and porridge oats and there was nothing suitable in the fridge.

"Does that woman want to kill me with greasy school food?" he asked out loud beginning to get annoyed at the prospect of having to be sick in the toilets after school.

Desperately he checked the fridge again in hope the he had missed something. On the top shelf he spotted a cake. Suddenly happy Ciel pulled it out and found that it was an entire Strawberry Shortcake.

"This should be suitable," he said to himself. "It's got fruit, one of your 5-a-day."

He grabbed a knife from the block and cut himself a generous slice which was more like a quarter of the cake which he placed in a plastic container along with a silver fork with the Phantomhive crest on. That was lunch sorted.

"Hurry up Ciel!" his aunt shouted from the doorway to the house. "Do you want to make me late for work?"

"I'm coming!" he shouted back and shoved his lunch in his backpack.

"Ciel, did the headmaster say anything yesterday about being in a house and assigned a mentor?" Ciel's form tutor enquired, leaning down to talk to the boy who sat alone at the back of the classroom, away from everyone else in his form.

Ciel looked up from his Sherlock Holmes novel. "Yes, he said I was in the scarlet house and would be assigned a mentor to look after me today," he answered vaguely and returned to his book.

"We normally select a suitable student to be one from the same house, but this time we had a volunteer," the teacher smiled. "I think you know him already. Ah, he's just arrived." He waved.

With dread in his heart about who it was Ciel looked up from his book and confirmed his suspicions. Sebastian Michaelis was standing in the doorway staring directly at him with a sadistic smiled decorating his face.

"Why does it have to be Him of all people?" he hissed angrily.

"Please put up with it," the teacher begged. "He's never shown much interest in school before and this is the first time that he has attended form time, I'm hoping he will keep this up, it will improve my reputation. Please Ciel."

Cogs began to turn in Ciel's devious mind as he scented the teacher's desperation to have Ciel go along with it to improve his standing among the teachers. "All right, on one condition," he replied quietly as Sebastian began to walk towards them.

"What's the condition?" "Give me his school record later and tell me everything you know about him. I will come after school," he whispered.

Sebastian pulled out the chair next to Ciel noisily, took his coat and shoulder bag off and slid into the chair gracefully.

"Good morning Sebastian. Please look after for Ciel for a while," the teacher greeted.

"I will, Mr Wordsmith," he replied smoothly.

"How are you, Ciel? By the way I've transferred into all of your classes so I can do my job as a mentor properly," he said as Mr Wordsmith walked away.

"You did WHAT?" Ciel shouted. Seeing Sebastian's face all day was his idea of hell on earth. Now actual school didn't seem to be too bad compared to spending every moment with a grinning sadist. At the sound of his shout everyone's head spun in his direction.

"I'm sorry," he apologised hastily. "I just hit my hand on something."

Sebastian snickered quietly at Ciel's expense. "All I had to do was prove that I was smart enough to be in all of the top groups like you. Luckily Physical Education is mixed otherwise I would be in a higher group than you," he smirked.

"Tch," was Ciel's only reply.

At lunchtime after suffering through 4 lessons of Sebastian's sniggers at every little thing he did, Ciel felt he was justified for running away from him as soon as the bell rang for lunch break.

Happily, he sat down on a bench outside in a secluded corner, not minding the cold wind and opened his container to eat his cake. He ate a contented mouthful and sighed at the taste of sponge, strawberries and cream.

There is no sign of Sebastian, I must have given him the slip, he thought to himself as he raised the fork to eat another piece.

"So that's the Phantomhive crest?" a familiar voice came from behind him.

His heart lurched with shock and he spun round to see Sebastian standing behind him with glinting eyes.

"You can't give me the slip that easily, Earl Phantomhive," he said with a dangerous smile that showed his perfect teeth.

Ciel froze upon hearing his state his title. "How- What makes you think that I'm an Earl" he asked in what he hoped was his natural voice as he tried to calm his heart down.

Sebastian sat down next to him and put Ciel's forkful of cake in his mouth. "I researched you last night, but I had already guessed from the way you spoke and the fact that it was your first day at school that you had a high social standing."

"I see."

It was useless to deny if Sebastian had researched him.

"I am an Earl, but I see no reason to use that title: it doesn't really belong to me and I have no use for it," he said sadly, beginning to think about the past again and the previous Earl's untimely death.

"There's something I'm not so sure on," Sebastian paused for a second. "What happened to your parents?"

There was a deafening silence as Ciel had an internal debate inside his head at what to do. He wanted to get up right now and walk away, but Sebastian would persist in finding the truth and end up annoying him even more in the process. The sooner he told him, the sooner Sebastian would leave him alone, he decided eventually. Of course he didn't have to tell the entire truth: the fact that Sebastian needed to ask him implied that he didn't actually know.

"Didn't your research unearth the facts?" he asked finally after making his mind up.

Sebastian's ears pricked up at the sign of Ciel relenting.

"No, all I know is that the previous Earl and his wife lived with their son in an mansion outside London until 6 years ago when there was a fire that destroyed the house and the son was the only survivor," he said as he watched Ciel carefully. "I could only find one news report and all the other reports had been deleted so I thought I would ask you for the details."

Ciel's only reaction was to scowl and turn his face away. He had never told anyone the truth about what had happened on the night of his 10th birthday apart from his aunt and he didn't know what Sebastian intended to do with the information if he actually told him.

"There was a fire one night. We became trapped and they threw me out of the window so I could escape, but they didn't get out in time and they died," Ciel lied, praying that Sebastian would believe him and drop the subject and eventually leave him alone.

Unfortunately for him Sebastian sensed the lie immediately as it didn't cover the facts he knew or why the incident had not been reported in full detail.

"Stop lying Ciel. I know there's more to it than that," he leaned in towards him.

"If I told you, would you leave me alone?"

That was an interesting question, Sebastian thought and cocked his head on the side and considered allowing his new toy to escape unscathed.

"No."

There was still a lot of fun to enjoy and he had never been able to play with an Earl before.

"Fine," Ciel sighed. "Will you at least drop the subject of my parents if I tell you?"

That sounded fine to Sebastian: he wasn't really that interested in Ciel's past- the future looked to be more interesting. However the past was what shaped a person and it would be helpful to know why the boy self harmed.

Unconsciously Ciel's hand moved up his face to touch the eye patch under his fringe. Sebastian's eyes followed the movement and widened when they spotted the eye patch, but he decided not to say anything for now.

"My father had a rival competitor in business- the Phantomhive family used to run Funtom- that confectionary and toy company. The competitor held a grudge against him. One night he arrived at the house with a group of friends, mutilated and killed my parents in front of me, set the house on fire to burn me alive, but the fire didn't spread fast enough to satisfy them as the house was quite large so they started on me and one of them dug my eye out. I never knew who the man that started it all was."

That was not what he had expected to heat. Sebastian felt unusually guilty for asking such a sensitive and painful question. His family were bad enough, but at least he had parents. It explained why the boy looked permanently depressed and why he self harmed.

The memories were right on the surface for Ciel and he couldn't stop watching them in his mind. His mother's pained screams. The laughter of the men. The blood flowing everywhere. The flames and the smoke. Then the terrifying moment when they turned on him.

"Luckily for my other eye, the emergency services turned up, alerted by the fire and the gang scarpered," Ciel finished and adjusted his fringe to cover the eye patch again.

"So that's why you're here, in a state school instead of a private school and explains why you don't use your title," Sebastian inferred the reasons for Ciel's presence in a place that he didn't really fit into. "You don't want to attract the attention of the people that killed your parents."

"Yes, my aunt moved me here after their deaths and last week she tricked me into coming here."

"Tricked?"

"We had a chess match over it. She cheated and I lost, but we hadn't agreed beforehand that cheating was forbidden so I had to come here."

"By the way Ciel, I believe you now about yesterday when you threw up. As part of his punishment for setting fire to one of the science labs Bard works in the school kitchen. 80% of what he had managed to cook has been charcoal and the other 20% has been classed as hazardous waste."

Ciel nodded at the unexpected apology. "Now that it has been settled that I'm not bulimic, can you give me my fork back and let me eat in peace."

It was impossible to deny that Ciel Phantomhive excelled in all academic subjects such as English and Maths, but it was also undeniable that his weakest area was definitely Physical Education.

Sebastian watched and smiled from the bench at the side of the sports hall as Ciel dropped the basketball and fell over after a teammate had passed it to him for the fifth time in a row. The boy really had no coordination which made him amusing to watch.

PE was one of the lessons that Sebastian normally skipped, but it was worth it all, even wearing the highly unflattering kit to watch Ciel struggle.

The Physical Education teacher blew the whistle to stop the game.

"Phantomhive! That's the fifth time. Sit out for the next game," he barked unsympathetically.

Ciel made a face as Sebastian waved at him from the bench. To cover his arms he was wearing the hooded top which was part of the kit, but it only came in one size and was too big on him and made him seem a lot smaller than he really was.

As Ciel sat down next to him Sebastian slipped the sleeve back on one of his arms and examined it for fresh marks. Ciel made no movement to stop him as he knew that there weren't any to be found. Sebastian pulled the sleeve back down and checked the other one disappointedly. If the boy had stopped now then his fun would be over all too soon.

"So are you going to stop then, Ciel?"

"Maybe." Ciel moved his arm out of Sebastian's grip.

"Don't you ever think about getting revenge on the people that ruined your life?" Sebastian enquired thoughtfully. If he was in that position then he certainly would.

Bitterly Ciel nodded. He thought about it often; hunting the men down and killing them painfully, but reality always prevailed and he knew deep down that it wasn't possible with his current means.

"You watched me fail in that simple basketball game. I'm physically weak and underdeveloped. I can't do anything by myself and I don't inherit my parent's money until I'm 18."

The boy had a point. In the 21st century money was power: if you didn't have a large amount of money, you didn't have any power so he was essentially powerless. The situation was interesting. Ciel had the need and he had the means. His family were well off and known in the business world. They could work together, but he wasn't going to do anything for free.

"Ciel," Sebastian began as he put the proposal together in his mind. "I'll help you obtain revenge. To put it simply: I'm rich and my parents are out of the country so I can do anything I like with their money."

Ciel blinked in surprise at the suddenness of the proposal, then he narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"What's in it for you?"

"The pleasure of your company," he winked and Ciel narrowed his eyes even further. "No, I'm joking. I'll tell you what I want when you get your revenge."

It seemed too vague for Ciel. If he didn't know who the perpetrators were, even with a large amount of money, how was he supposed to track them down? But it was the best option he had right now and he was willing to clutch at any straw even if it was the thinnest spider's thread.

"I agree to your ambiguous terms for now, until a better option presents itself."

"Excellent," Sebastian steepled his fingers. "Let's make a contract then to make it official."

 


	2. Concussion and Cavities

**Contracts and Cake:**

**Chapter 2:**

" _A contract? You will help me in return for a price and I can't escape it?"_

" _Yes."_

" _I… need to think about it."_

Ciel replayed their conversation as he walked back to his form room after school to obtain Sebastian's school record off Mr Wordsmith. Sebastian's proposition would be convenient, but he had had a glimmer in his eye that he didn't trust one but. He would have to think about it carefully before agreeing to anything if they made an official contract, then he would have to abide by all the terms and wouldn't be able to get out of it.

Besides, what was Sebastian planning to get out of it? He couldn't think of anything likely.

Coming out of his reverie, he knocked on the open door of his form room, entered and closed the door behind him. Ciel could hear the sound of vacuum cleaners at the end of the corridor so he knew that he didn't have much time before the cleaners came in.

"Hello Ciel. I found his file and photocopied it," Mr Wordsmith said hurriedly, also aware that they didn't have very long. He passed a plain blue folder to Ciel who placed it in his bag.

"Do you have any other additional details to add?" Ciel asked as he zipped up his coat, ready for the rain outside.

His form tutor gestured him to come closer and shot worried glances at the door.

"Last year he was suspended from school for a month," he whispered. "I don't know the exact reason as I'm new this year and none of the teachers seem willing to talk about him for some reason, but I the lady in the records office had heard it was because he induced a girl to commit suicide."

Ciel flinched and his eyes widened. Was that the price he was going to claim? Either way, continuing his acquaintanceship with Sebastian was not going to be beneficial to his already fragile health.

The teacher saw the look on Ciel's face and hastened to dispel his uneasiness. "It's just a rumour- it might not be true."

"You have a point," he said absently as he turned to leave. "Thank you for the information."

Sebastian's school record was disappointing for Ciel. It had useful information like his address and the names of his parents, but it was devoid of anything personal. He scanned the attendance figures amusedly. For 4 years running he had had 50% attendance which was a pretty low figure, but his attendance had been good in the month leading up to his suspension which was suspicious.

The record of the suspension itself was very uninformative. It just said "suspended" and listed the date- it didn't state the reason.

Frustrated, Ciel began to tap his fingers on the kitchen table. He needed more information from a reliable source about what had happened involving Sebastian the previous year. A teacher would not do- he had only been able to get information out of Mr Wordsmith because he had blackmailed him. He needed to ask someone that would tell him without spreading rumours or asking anything in return. A girl would be bound to know the gossip.

Then it came to him. He would ask his cousin Elizabeth. She would be willing to gossip with him without wondering why he was asking. He slid his phone out his pocket and dialled her number.

She picked up after the first ring.

"Ciel!" she screamed down the phone. "You've finally called me!"

Ciel held the phone away from his ear slightly in case she screamed again.

"Can I ask you something? It's school related."

"You can ask me anything, I know everything! On your behalf I cleared up misunderstandings about your gender. You're so cute; they all thought you were a girl!"

He rolled his eye. "Thank you Elizabeth. Back to the original subject, why was Sebastian Michaelis suspended from school last year?"

There was a brief silence and then Elizabeth screamed loudly. Ciel winced and held the phone further away from his ear.

"Ciel! Don't get involved with him! I'll explain further at school tomorrow," she said in a panicked tone. "Meet me in the canteen at lunchtime."

Ciel groaned. He had spotted her in the canteen on his first day; she had been surrounded by a bunch of girls, talking about how cute everything was, which was his idea of a nightmare. On the other hand, she obviously had the information that he needed so he would have to agree.

"I will, but could we sit alone, away from your friends? I don't want people to hear," he asked and added a bait, "It would be like a date." He knew she would like that.

"Yes! I'll see you tomorrow Ciel!" She squealed as he hung up.

What had Sebastian done?

At lunchtime Ciel navigated his way through the packed canteen to search for his informant. After being almost trampled on by some taller students that hadn't seen him, he spotted Elizabeth. As promised she was sitting by herself at a table next to the wall.

Her blonde curly hair was split into two bunches, tied off with pale pink ribbons in her hair and there was also a giant pink bow in her hair. As he approached he saw that her earring were pink rabbits. She hadn't changed a bit since he had last seen her, he reflected.

Throughout formtime and his morning lessons he had ignored Sebastian's reminders about making a contract with him. Eventually Sebastian had stopped pestering him about it. To get to the canteen alone he had climbed out the bathroom window with some difficulty whilst Sebastian was waiting outside the door and then he had run the outside way to the canteen.

"Ciel!" Elizabeth greeted him happily as he pulled out the chair opposite her and sat down.

""Hello Elizabeth," he replied, surreptitiously checking that his wrists weren't showing.

"Lizzie," she said threateningly, or as threateningly as someone could with a giant pink bow in their hair.

"Lizzie. Can you answer last night's question about Sebastian Michaelis?" Ciel asked, getting straight to the point."

"Answer my question first: do you like him?" she retaliated, leaning closer to hear his answer. "He's the only person you've hung out with so far."

"I don't," he answered immediately, a little too quickly. "He just started sticking to me and I can't get rid of him."

Lizzie's eyes widened. "Oh dear," she murmured worriedly. "You must be his next target."

Ciel stiffened. "What?"

"Do you see that girl over there?" she pointed.

Ciel followed her finger, noting that her fingernail was painted bright pink. In the corner of the canteen at a small table, a girl was sitting alone, staring into space. She had large round lens glasses and red hair.

"I do," he replied, unsure of what she getting at.

"That is Mey-Rin. She attempted to commit suicide last year. Sebastian told her to."

"W-What?" Ciel stuttered. Was Sebastian intent on making him to the same? He had certainly been happy to observe that he cut himself.

Lizzie nodded seriously. "Luckily for her she was discovered and resuscitated. She told the Police everything. Sebastian told her how to do and helped her make the noose."

Ciel felt as if he was going to throw up for the second time in three days. Was his death going to be Sebastian's "price"? He wasn't really sure, but he suspected that it was the case. However before he confronted the teenage sadist he needed to clear up some anomalies.

"Why wasn't he expelled from school? A month's suspension is very light for a person that attempted to kill someone," Ciel enquired, regaining his composure.

"His parents. The head teacher is terrified of them and was probably too scared to provoke them by expelling their son. Of course, for Mey-Rin's sake there had to be some kind of punishment. Also I believe that his parents donate to the school," Elizabeth informed him.

Ciel couldn't help but smile slightly at her. He had chosen the right person to as ask and she had just saved him from making a huge mistake by accepting Sebastian's offer without knowing the full terms.

"Thank you Lizzie for telling me all of this," he said gratefully.

"That's okay Ciel," she squealed happily. "I'm always willing to help and I brought in some cake for you."

Her head disappeared under the table and she brought out a frilly and pink child's lunchbox. She opened it and passed what resembled an explosion on a napkin to her cousin.

Her cousin eyed it nervously. "What is it supposed to be?"

"Victoria Sponge, silly Ciel! I made it just for you!"

"Yes, silly Ciel, how could you not see? It's obviously a Victoria Sponge," Sebastian's voice made itself known behind Ciel.

Elizabeth squeaked and her face turned to an icy shade of white.

"Hello Lady Elizabeth Midford," he greeted her politely and perched himself on the edge of the edge of Ciel's chair without asking.

"Y-You murderer! Stay away from Ciel!"

Sebastian raised an eyebrow. "I don't want to and I'm not a murderer, my lady."

Elizabeth desperately clutched at the only hope she had to try and make him leave Ciel alone.

"He's my fiancé so stay away from him."

That certainly had an effect on Sebastian. He had researched the Phantomhive family and their connections like the Midfords and had found nothing about an engagement. She must be lying to keep me away from Ciel. Well, that wasn't going to work, he thought to himself possessively. Ciel was his to play with and break.

"Oh really?" he smile at her and tasted satisfaction in the angry expression on her face that clashed with the pink bow in her hair.

"Yes. It was decided right before… before that incident."

Sebastian turned to Ciel for confirmation. "Is this true?"

Ciel sighed. Everything had become a mess and somehow turned in to a fight between Lizzie and Sebastian over him. He shuffled over in his seat so he wasn't touching Sebastian.

"It is true, but it was never finalised due to what happened right after. The marriage would have been beneficial to both our families, but there is no need for that now," he said quietly.

"So you aren't engaged then," Sebastian said condescendingly to Lizzie who was thinking of other ways to outdo Sebastian when she remembered something from her childhood.

"I-I've kissed Ciel. I have more ownership of him than you!"

At that outburst Sebastian blinked in surprise, unsure of what to say to that. If it was true then she had done more things to Ciel than him. He turned to the boy who was frozen in his seat at his cousin's words and tapped him on the shoulder to confirm or deny the outburst. Ciel shuffled away from him.

"Yes, we have kissed," he admitted reluctantly. "It was when we were younger and it was only on the cheek."

Sebastian raised one eyebrow elegantly. "I will have to rectify and few things then," he said and pulled Ciel closer to him.

"W-What are you doing?" Ciel stuttered in fright.

"Be quiet, Ciel."

Sebastian gripped Ciel's chin and turned his face towards him. He ran a hand through the boy's hair, making sure not to uncover the eye patch- that was their secret, and was about to do something more daring when suddenly someone in the canteen screamed loudly.

Everyone's heads turned in the direction of the scream and found Mey-Rin standing and pointing a shaking finger right at Sebastian.

"Stop playing with people!" she shouted and ran out the side entrance to the canteen.

The moment provided and welcome distraction for Ciel as Sebastian had let go of his head. He slid out of his arms and stood up.

"Sebastian, I want a word with you. Not here, somewhere more private ," he gritted his teeth as all his common sense was telling him to stay away from the dangerous teenager.

Now that he had had time to think about the situation, he decided that he would give Sebastian a chance to explain himself. If his reasons for inducing a girl to commit suicide were unjustifiable he would stay away from him. If they were the opposite… he still wasn't sure what he was going to do.

"You may," Sebastian nodded and got up and led the way out, seemingly oblivious to all the stares he was getting.

Ciel followed him down the English corridor until they reach a secluded corner and Sebastian stopped and turned round to face him.

"What would you like to talk about?"

"Did you really persuade Mey-Rin to commit suicide?" he asked, staring at him directly in the eyes in order to gauge his reaction and whether or not he was lying.

"I did," was the brief reply.

Ciel was aghast. He had expected a denial and his eyes hadn't even flickered in the slightest. How could he just admit it so casually, he asked himself. He must be one hell of a freak/ sadist.

"Why?"

"Because of the contract. Her terms were that I had to be her boyfriend for a month which I was. After the month was over I told her my terms and she had no choice but to obey," Sebastian informed him casually as they were talking about something commonplace like the weather.

"If I made a contract with you, would the terms be the same?"

That had been bothering Ciel since he had found out about Mey-Rin.

Sebastian considered the question as he stared at Ciel. The boy was fun to play with, but as he was avoiding him he needed to change his act so he could persuade him to make the contract.

"No, my terms would be different if you made a contract with me, but I won't tell you those terms until after."

"I see."

The incident with Mey-Rin showed how seriously Sebastian took his contracts so if he did enter a contract, Sebastian would help him track down the people that ruined his life.

"Would you make a contract with me?" Sebastian enquired, to test the tension between them.

Ciel itched his head. "I still need some time, I'll tell you after school."

Sebastian smirked demonically. "I'll be waiting. By the way we're doing cricket in Physical Education. I'll be your batting partner."

"No thank you."

15 minutes into the game Ciel found that he definitely had no aptitude for cricket as all the balls he actually managed to hit seemed to land right in the hands of the fielders. As they switched sides he guessed he was going to be useless as a fielder as well as a batter. Sebastian who was on the opposing team had caught most of the balls that he had actually hit to annoy him.

"Michaelis, you're next to bat. Can you actually aim the ball rather than just hitting it randomly like Phantomhive?" the teacher instructed, rolling his eyes.

Sebastian caught Ciel's eye as he stepped out to bat and decided to aim it directly at Ciel to see if he could catch it. The bowler threw the ball and he hit it towards Ciel and started to run to the other wicket. As he ran he looked over at Ciel and saw he wasn't moving at all and his eye was glazed over. Then his legs buckled and Sebastian rushed over to catch him just as the boy crumpled to the floor.

Concernedly, he laid Ciel down on the floor and spotted the obvious cause for the collapse. The cricket ball was right at his feet and there was a dribble of blood on Ciel's forehead.

The ball he had aimed at Ciel had hit him and knocked him out.

 


	3. Butterfly Cakes and Kisses

**Contracts and Cake:**

**Chapter 3:**

"Ciel! Wake up!" he shouted desperately, afraid that he had seriously hurt him.

The Physical Education teacher pushed him gently aside and brushed back the hair on Ciel's forehead to have a closer look. Sebastian remembered the eye patch just in time and clamped his hand over it as a crowd of people had gathered around.

"There's a huge bruise and a cut," the teacher said, standing up. "He needs to get to the hospital so he can be stitched up and treated. Michaelis, you can go with him as you seem to be… friends."

Sebastian picked Ciel up bridal style and discreetly unhooked the eye patch so the cut would not need to be covered in hair which would irritate it.

"You gave me a fright," he muttered to the unconscious Ciel, then he wondered why he cared so much.

A female red haired doctor took responsibility for Ciel and Sebastian as soon as they arrived at the local hospital. They had been driven to the hospital by the school secretary who had been sending Sebastian flirtatious looks all through the journey. To dissuade her he had started to stroke Ciel's face and hair which had worked very well.

"So you're Sebastian Michaelis," the doctor said as she finished Ciel's stitches.

"Yes," he answered distractedly, not bothering to wonder how she knew his name. "When is he going to wake up? It's been nearly an hour."

Ciel was lying unconscious on the pristine white hospital bed, looking peaceful and calm for once.

"He will come round," she replied calmly. "Can you give me his eye patch please?"

Sebastian took it out of his pocket and handed it over, surprised that she knew that he wore one. "How did you know?"

"I'm his aunt. I'm Angelina Durless."

Angelina looked Sebastian up and down, unsure of what to think. He seemed to be very concerned about her nephew, but there was a strange look in his red eyes and he watched Ciel sleep that she didn't know what to think of.

"I'm sorry, you didn't introduce yourself earlier. How do you know my name?"

"I did tell you who I was; you were just too worried about Ciel to listen. As for your name I found a copy of your school record including a nice photo under his bed this morning."

That was obviously payback for the research that he had done on him, Sebastian decided. He wondered how he had managed to obtain the record. And now as a result he had found out about Mey-Rin. He had gotten a fright when he had sneaked up behind Ciel and his cousin in the canteen to find them discussing him and his exploits.

He watched silently as Ciel's aunt put his eye patch back on carefully and held his hand.

"Why won't you get him to wake up now?"

"He has trouble sleeping at night. A normal person would have woken up now, but he hasn't, it's nothing too serious. His body just needs sleep," she informed him quietly. "He might be here a while so you might want to go home."

"No, I'll stay here," he said quickly, unwilling to leave Ciel alone.

"You will? I have some other patients to see so I'll come back later. If he does wake up before that, don't allow him to make any sudden movements," Angeline instructed, placing Ciel's hand in Sebastian's and rushing out the room.

Sebastian stared down at Ciel's hand which seemed tiny in comparison to his and sighed. At least he knew the boy was going to live. He wasn't sure why he had become so worried earlier. He assured himself that it was just worry about whether or not Ciel was alive to make a contract with. It wasn't anything else.

For an hour he sat in the plastic chair next to Ciel's bed, watching his chest rise and fall. He had let go of his hand quite quickly, but he had stayed there with him. The weak winter's sunlight shone through the window making Ciel look even more serene and at peace.

However he began to get a little bored after the first hour so he checked Ciel's arms for any new marks- there were none. Then he became curious as to what exactly was under his eye patch.

He reached out and delicately unhooked the eye patch. As he was about to roll back the eye lid he became aware that Ciel's other eye was open and staring up at him.

"You don't want to do that."

Sebastian sat back down disappointedly and handed the eye patch over for the second time that day. Ciel sat up slowly and put it back on.

"How long was I out?" he yawned and winced as he touched the stitches on his forehead.

"Just over 2 hours," Sebastian answered. "I'm sorry about knocking you out; I thought you would be able to catch it."

Ciel threw back the white hospital bed cover and swung his legs around so he was sitting on the edge. Sebastian grabbed his shoes from under the bed and put them on him for him so Ciel wouldn't have to bend down and get light headed.

"I am annoyed, but it's all right. I should have been able to catch it- I was just too slow. It's not your fault," Ciel said and stood up and Sebastian offered his arm as support.

"It is my fault. By the way, I've met your aunt now."

As he spoke the door opened and Angelina Durless stepped in and surveyed the scene silently.

"Ciel, you're awake now. How's your head?" she asked concernedly. "Are you seeing anything you shouldn't be?"

"It twinges a little, but my sight is fine."

"Good. I've finished my shift for now so I will drive you home," she said. "Sebastian, would you like to come as well? You seem to be… friendly with Ciel."

She looked pointedly at his arm which was around her nephew. Ciel noticed the glance and quickly pushed him away.

"If it is okay with you, I would love to visit your house," Sebastian replied and flashed her his best fake smile. "Ciel and I are  _very_  close friends."

Sebastian absorbed all the details of Ciel's bedroom as he waited for Ciel to come upstairs. He could hear talking downstairs and guessed that they were talking about him.

He walked across the bare floorboards towards Ciel's bookshelves and as he did so he noticed that one of them was slightly raised. He bent down and prised it up with his fingernails.

Underneath the floorboard was a knife wrapped in a blood spotted white hand kerchief. Beside the knife was a tiny jewellery box. He opened it and saw that there were two rings inside. One was plan and gold and the other was more intricate with a large blue shard of crystal surrounded by swirls of silver. He wondered why they were hidden with the knife and who they belonged to as they looked old fashioned.

Sebastian closed the box and placed it back in the cavity alongside the knife which was fortunate as he suddenly heard Ciel coming up the stairs.

Ciel entered the room to find Sebastian sitting in the armchair in the alcove with the reading lamp on, partway through Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He frowned and the sight, having sworn he had heard the sound of running feet when he walked up the stairs.

Innocently Sebastian looked up as if he had just noticed his presence.

"Hello Ciel, how's the head."

Ciel touched his forehead and winced.

"It's fine," he answered and internally groaned about what his aunt had forced him to ask. "My aunt has invited you to stay for dinner and spend the night."

Sebastian smirked at Ciel's obvious discomfort.

"I would love to."

* * *

"So you live alone. That must be lonely," Angelina said as she took a sip of her after dinner coffee.

They were all relaxing in the sitting room after dinner, drinking tea and coffee and in Ciel's case drinking tea and eating cake. Sebastian had made the tea and Ciel had reluctantly complimented him on it as it didn't taste like any Earl Grey he had drunk before.

"Yes, since my parents are always away for some reason or another," Sebastian replied. "It gets lonely sometimes and I don't have any friends to keep me company."

"Isn't Ciel your friend?" Angelina asked suspiciously.

Ciel choked on his butterfly cake. He had been content to sit there eating butterfly cakes whilst the other two talked, but he didn't like being talked about as if he wasn't there.

"I would like to be his friend, but he always seems to run away from me," Sebastian said and winked at Ciel.

"That's because wherever I go you are always there with an annoying smirk on your face," he retorted.

"Sorry, I was born with this annoying face."

Ciel rolled his eyes and finished off his fifth butterfly cake.

"Aunt Ann, where is Sebastian going to sleep? I don't want him in my room," he asked her and glared pointedly at Sebastian.

"He can sleep in the spare room," she answered. "Sebastian, neither of us have any clothes that would fit you so you will have to sleep in the clothes that you are wearing. Luckily tomorrow is Saturday and you don't have to go to school."

As soon as he entered his bedroom Ciel locked the door, determined not to leave until the next morning for fear of Sebastian trying to do something like he had done in the canteen earlier on in the day.

He was aware that Sebastian's manner towards him had changed over the three days that he had known him. At the starts he had been smirking and openly sadistic, but now he seemed to be more… caring, Ciel decided as he changed into his pyjamas. However with a freak like Sebastian you could never know his true personality.

There was a knock at the door which caused Ciel to jump violently out his reverie. With little doubt as to who it was he fastened the last button on his pyjama top and against his better sense he unlocked the door to talk with Sebastian.

Sebastian eyed Ciel's pure white pyjamas with amusement. The short Earl looked exactly like a 12 year old boy albeit with one eye glaring at him.

"Hello Ciel," Sebastian said smoothly. "I came to talk to you. Don't worry I'm not going to do anything to you unless you allow or want me to."

Ciel scowled and moved aside to let him in. Sebastian was still in his school trousers and socks, but he had taken his tie and blazer off. At least Sebastian had promised not to do anything to him.

"What do you want to talk about?" he asked after he had shut the door and sat down on the edge of his bed.

Sebastian sat down next to him. "What is your answer to my earlier question about the contract?"

"First you answer this: why do you spend your time making contracts with people?"

That question had been plaguing Ciel ever since he had found out that he was not the first person Sebastian had offered a contract to. A normal school child, especially one at a state school did not spend their time making contracts with people.

"I suppose it us because I'm always bored," Sebastian answered thoughtfully. "It passes the time and is occasionally entertaining."

"Why are you so bored?"

"My parents are rich and I don't have to work for anything because it is all given to me. School is boring because nothing new is ever taught so I started making contracts with people for interesting prices."

"What would be your "interesting" price for me?"

Sebastian regarded Ciel and thought about it carefully before realising that he had known all along what he wanted. He wanted Ciel Phantomhive. The boy was amusing to play with and was obviously innocent in certain areas.

"Let's just say I don't want to kill you and the price would be very fun and enjoyable for both of us."

Ciel blinked and attempted to work out what Sebastian's "price" was. Something "fun and enjoyable"… He frowned, unable to work it out. On the bright side, it wasn't his death which was a relief.

He signed and took a deep breath, knowing that he wouldn't be able to take back his words. "All right. I will make a contract with you. The sooner I make it, the sooner I will be rid of you."

Sebastian grinned triumphantly. The boy thought he was going be rid of him after the contract was over, that was definitely wrong.

"May I have a pen and some paper so we can write out the terms?" Sebastian asked.

Ciel nodded and pointed to his desk in the corner, still unsure of whether or not making a contract was really the best thing to do to obtain revenge. He watched Sebastian write elegantly on a piece of notepaper as he tried to work out what the price was.

After a few minutes had passed Sebastian dangled the piece of paper in front of Ciel who grabbed it and read the information listed.

_I, Sebastian Michaelis will assist Ciel Phantomhive financially and help in whatever way I can in tracking down the enemies that destroyed his former way of life and after they have been found I will help him get revenge._

_In return for my assistance I demand a price that I will collect at the end of our contract. The price will be secret until the end, but since Ciel Phantomhive is so curious I will give him a hint. I do not wish for his death and I promise that I will not hit a cricket ball at him ever again._

At the bottom Sebastian had signed his name. Ciel read it again and held out his hand for the pen like Sebastian was his butler and he was his young master. Upon receiving the pen he signed his name alongside Sebastian's, wondering exactly what he had signed himself up to.

"Thank you," Sebastian said as he took the paper back and tucked it in his trouser pocket. "Would you like your hint now?"

"Yes."

"Close your eye then."

Sebastian waited until Ciel had complied and leaned over him. He held his chin as if Ciel was a delicate china doll and touched his lips with his lightly and drew back quickly to watch his reaction.

Needless to say Ciel was very surprised. He opened his eye instantly and glared at Sebastian, trying to ignore the rising temperature of his body.

"How the hell is that a hint?" he demanded angrily.

Trying not to burst out laughing at the cute angry expression that Ciel was making Sebastian winked at him and opened the door to leave.

"Why don't you think it over in bed tonight?"

He shut the door behind him and listened for a few seconds to the sound of Ciel fuming and licked his lips.

Sebastian walked along the upstairs landing in darkness, happy that events were finally moving his way and Ciel had finally entered a contract with him. He was so wrapped up in his triumph that he didn't notice a dark silhouette in front of his room until it spoke.

"What are your intentions towards my nephew?"

* * *

 

All night Ciel lay tangled in his bed cover, frustrated with his inability to work out the "price" and the fact that his face was still red and hot from Sebastian's kiss. It had been his first real kiss as well. It was just his luck that a thing like that had been with a teenager that was one hell of a freak.

Now he only had one important first time left. Then an idea came to him. Something "fun and enjoyable"?

"No, it can't be," he said aloud, sitting up sharply with a fright, aghast at his discovery.


	4. Earl Grey Hot Chocolate

**Chapter 4:**

"No it can't be," Ciel said to himself and lay down again. "It's something else… It has to be."

Out of frustration he hit himself on the head to banish the memory of Sebastian's kiss and wished he had been able to muster enough coherent thought to slap him around the face rather than blush like a lovesick fool.

Love was a dangerous thing to do. It blinded you and prevented you from making sensible decisions that you would normally be able to make and it took up a lot of your time. Or that was what Ciel had taught himself to believe over the years since his parents had died.

"I don't love him," he whispered and curled up in his bed to finally get some sleep.

Sebastian jumped at the sound of Angelina's voice puncturing the silence of the night. He wiped the satisfied look off his face to answer her.

"We're just friends," he replied smoothly, hoping that she wouldn't pry any further, but he knew that she wasn't stupid enough to let it go at just that.

"Sebastian, I know that there is more to it than that. You look at Ciel like the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood. And I saw you leaving his room," Angelina snapped back, determined to get to the bottom of it.

"My my, Miss Durless, it seems you had an ulterior motive for inviting me to stay. Was it all just to have a late night interrogation?"

He had caught all the suspicious looks that she had been sending him all day and evening and had guessed that she was going to confront him sooner rather than later.

"That's right. Ciel is a fragile child and I have to be careful about who gets close to him. I don't want him to fall prey to a sadistic player."

Sebastian raised his eyebrows at the insult as he thought of a way to alleviate her concerns that didn't involve disclosing the full truth. There was only one card left that he could play.

"I assure you, Miss Durless, Ciel is the only one for me. My love may be one-sided at the moment, but over time I hope that our relationship will improve. I am trying to help him get over his past," Sebastian proclaimed, feeling nauseous at the words he was using, but the last part was true which would hopefully mollify his aunt into leaving him alone.

In surprise Angelina stared at him, unsure of what to do next. Was he really in love with Ciel? She had seen a caring look in his eyes. However in any case Ciel needed company and although his manner was brusque with the raven haired teenager she had sensed that he liked him slightly and Ciel did need help in losing his past and Sebastian might be the only person that could do it- he had scared off all the psychologists she had sent him to.

After a minute of consideration she made up her mind. She would observe both of them for now and if Sebastian did anything that damaged Ciel she would get revenge for him. She had plenty of weapons at her disposal from the hospital.

"I didn't know you were that serious. However please remember that I am watching you," she said as she walked away from him.

"Good night, Madame Red."

At the sound of her nickname Angeline froze as she was walking the stairs.

"How do you know?"

"I've heard about you. The flighty red haired socialite who always wears red and attends every party going. Does your nephew know about your reputation?"

"I go to fewer parties now. I think he knows and never says anything. Kind of like how I never mention anything about his little habit."

This time it was Sebastian's turn to freeze. "You know?"

"Of course I do, but I will only make things worse if I try to stop him myself and he would only find something more dangerous to do to stop the pain," she replied sadly. "Good night Sebastian."

Another reason for putting up with Sebastian was that since Ciel's first day of school she hadn't seen a fresh cut on him. The obviously shady teenager did have some good points.

The next morning Ciel stomped down the stairs tiredly to find Sebastian in the kitchen sitting at the table reading the newspaper. Upon seeing him Ciel felt his face go red. Sebastian looked up over the top of the newspaper and spotted him.

"Good morning Ciel. Your aunt had left already for her shift at the hospital," he smiled at Ciel looking like a shark watching his prey. "We have the house to ourselves."

Ignoring the innuendo, Ciel yawned loudly and headed over to the kettle to make something to wake himself up. Sebastian frowned at being ignored and put the newspaper down to watch Ciel pour water into the kettle. Ciel felt the gaze on his back and spotted his flushed reflection in the shiny surface of the kettle and steadfastly tried to think of cold things as he poured the boiled water into a teacup and added an Earl Grey teabag, milk and several generous spoonfuls of Hot Chocolate powder.

As Ciel sat down at the table Sebastian leaned forward to check the teacup to make sure that he had really seen Ciel mix tea and hot chocolate together.

"Seriously Ciel, Earl Grey Hot Chocolate? Next thing I know you'll be eating cake for breakfast, but knowing you, you probably do."

Ciel glared at the accusation which was actually true, but he was glad that his body temperature had gone down.

"I need a lot of caffeine in the morning," he explained as he blew on the concoction to cool it down.

Unconsciously Sebastian found himself drawn to the boy's lips. He decided to change the subject to see if Ciel was still flustered about his kiss from the night before.

"I see. Have you worked out my "price" yet?"

To his amusement Ciel jumped in his chair and his face flushed red as he fought the urge to spit his mouthful of liquid out.

"I-I don't know… I might do, but I don't really."

Sebastian fought back a smile. He had given him two hints, but the innocent one clearly hadn't picked up on it. It seemed as if he wanted another hint and Sebastian was eager to comply.

"Ciel, come here and I will give you another hint," he beckoned.

Doubtfully Ciel rose from his chair and walked over to where Sebastian was sitting. If Sebastian did anything vaguely sexual then he would know for definite that his theory was right. It was the only way he could confirm it without directly asking.

Sebastian pulled Ciel onto his lap and tried hard to hide his smirk. The boy was too defenceless for his own good. Ciel gritted his teeth in preparation for whatever was going to happen next. He felt Sebastian's hair touch his neck and tried to fight all the weird feelings in his body which were threatening to run rampant. The next thing he knew Sebastian's teeth were nibbling his ear and he could feel his hot breath on his cheek.

"Ow. That hurts. Is that the hint?"

"Yes," Sebastian whispered seductively. "Would you like another one?"

The seductive tone only furthered Ciel's suspicions. He had been right. He pulled away from Sebastian and took deep breaths to calm his heart rate down.

"Have you got it now?" Sebastian looked at him inquisitively with a hint of a smirk visible in his expression.

Ciel sighed. "Yes thank you and I know that I can't avoid it as I signed the contract."

He sat back down in his seat to finish his Earl Grey Hot Chocolate. Sebastian was surprised with the lack of a reaction from Ciel; he had been expecting to see him a lot more flustered. Well, there were other ways to infuriate him, he thought to himself as he picked up the newspaper again. Then he paused as Ciel set down his half empty cup down on its saucer.

"Can I try some of that?"

Ciel pushed it towards him and Sebastian took a sip, making sure to put his mouth on the same part that Ciel had put his. The drink was too sweet for him but that didn't matter.

"Did you know that we just indirectly kissed?"

He winked and watched as Ciel's eye narrowed and the colour of his face darkened.

* * *

It was later in the morning when Ciel entered his bedroom to find Sebastian lounging on his bed. Luckily for him he had got dressed in the bathroom in case Sebastian tried to attack him when he was wearing nothing but a towel.

"What is the plan for today?" Ciel enquired as he towel dried his hair which was still wet from his shower.

Sebastian took the towel from Ciel's hands and began to dry his hair for him.

"I thought that we should go to my house."

"Your house?" the other boy questioned as his hair was rubbed dry. "How is that going to help me find the people that killed my parents?"

Sebastian stopped rubbing with the towel and checked Ciel's hair for dampness before throwing the towel on the bed.

"Everything. The brief times when my father is actually home he is always meeting his business rivals and investors. Last time he was here he had some Lord over for dinner. It's likely that in his list of contacts that we might find the person that instigated the attack. Do you remember what he looked like?"

Ciel turned away and shook a little as he finally lifted the lid on the memories that he had always been trying to block out and repress for years. All the blood, the flames, his lost eye…

"Yes," he said eventually. "I do."

"That will speed the process up," Sebastian said happily, pleased that there was a chance that he wouldn't have to wait too long to claim his reward. "Let's go then. Remember to wrap up warm- it's cold outside."

The sky outside was grey and lined with murky dark clouds as they walked down the streets to Sebastian's house. The silence between them was comfortable and Ciel used the rare opportunity to prepare himself mentally for what was to come and for when the time came to pay Sebastian's price which something that he had avoided thinking about in detail after the latest hint.

"Have you actually completed all of the contracts that you have made?" he asked on the spur of the moment.

At the question Sebastian twitched guiltily. "All but one."

"Why?"

"Because I neglected to make sure that I knew the exact terms before I agreed to it. The person just said that they needed help with something and that it wouldn't take very long," he explained and baulked at the bad memory. "The person I made the contract with was called Grell Sutcliffe."

"What did he/she want?" Ciel coaxed, noting that Sebastian seemed very sensitive about it which indicated that it was probably quite embarrassing- that made him want to know even more.

The black haired teenager that didn't seemed to be scared of anything pulled a face at the memory of the flamboyantly gay, red haired that male that had had a huge crush on him and had kept popping up everywhere he went and would throw himself on him.

" _He_ seemed to be convinced that he was a woman and he wanted… to have a child with me. I only found that out after I had agreed to make the contract," he said and shuddered.

Every time he thought about that incident he felt a shiver go up his spine as he remembered how that man was so deluded that he was a female that he would dress in woman's clothes and speak in a high pitched voice.

Unexpectedly Ciel burst out laughing at the anecdote and his mental image of Sebastian being chased after by a man that was convinced he was a woman.

"What did you do after you found out what he wanted?"

"I gave him the Sex Education pamphlets that primary school children get given and scarpered. In case he came after me again I changed my phone number and didn't leave the house for a while."

"Is that the only thing that scares you? Really gay men?"

Sebastian scoffed. "You would understand if you met him. He was…more camp than a row of tents."

"He does sound scary," Ciel agreed.

Sebastian looked down at him and smiled. "He was."

As he spoke they turned the corner and he stopped walking.

"This is my house."

Ciel looked in straight on and realised it was the only house on the street which was actually a cul-de-sac. The house was large with 3 floors and big garden surrounded by a wall and a gate. He watched as Sebastian punched in the code to unlock the gate and followed him in.

"Do really live here all by yourself?" Ciel asked as they walked up the garden path to the front door. "It seems quiet."

"It is," Sebastian admitted as he unlocked the door and stepped inside. "I'm sure your former home was much nicer."

As they stood in the entryway Ciel became aware that something in the air was irritating his nose and giving him the urge to sneeze. He sniffed the air curiously which had the distinct tang of pet food.

"You wouldn't happen to have a pet would you? Like a cat for example."

Sebastian paused as he took off his coat. "No, I have cats- more than one. My parents also have a dog named Pluto that they always take with them. Do you want to meet all my cats?"

Damn it, he would have to have cats, Ciel cursed in his head as he sneezed twice in a row. He hadn't been in contact with a single cat for a number of years, it seemed like he still had the allergy.

"I'm allergic to cats so no thank you," he answered and promptly sneezed again.

The usually stoic teenager pouted in disappointment. "I love cats. I really hate dogs though- Pluto gets on my nerves."

Ciel grinned suddenly. "I used to have a dog. His name was Sebastian." He stuck his tongue out.

The cat lover blinked in surprise. The boy was definitely full of surprises and he had stopped seeing him as the small weak boy that self harmed. Now he seemed like a different person. He was fun to annoy and was actually quite cute and Sebastian was slowly becoming addicted to him.

They walked through the dark hallway to a sizeable sitting room with antique style sofas and armchairs. The walls were painted white, but somehow the room seemed dark.

"What are your parents' names?" Ciel asked as he fingered the black velvet of the sofa he was sitting on.

"My father is Ash and my mother is called Angela. They both have white grey hair and are a little strange. In the library which is next door to this one, we have all the family portraits dating back as far as the 19th Century. There is one of my parents. You can have a look around whilst I get changed," Sebastian suggested as he turned to leave. "Don't worry; the cats have their own room upstairs."

He smirked and made his way upstairs to change out of his school uniform. He took the piece of paper that detailed their contract out of his pocket and filed it with the others. He had contracted with a variety of people for various different reasons. However he had never contracted with anyone like Ciel before.

He was in the process of buttoning up his blouse when he heard a loud crash from downstairs. With a pounding heart he rushed down the stairs and into the library where he had directed Ciel to a few minutes before.

Lying on the carpeted floor directly underneath his father's portrait was Ciel who was shaking violently. Sebastian rushed over to him and turned him over to find him with an even whiter face than normal, askew hair, a sweat laden forehead and a very wide eye.

"What's wrong!? Are you hurt?" he shouted anxiously and checked him for injuries.

In answer a shaking finger pointed up at Ash Michaelis' portrait.

"That's him," Ciel groaned faintly. "He is the one that killed my parents, set my house on fire and gouged my eye out."

In horror Sebastian stared down at him, remembering that on his desk in his study his father kept an eyeball in a jar to remind him of something. An eye that was a pretty shade of blue. An eye that matched the one that was staring frantically at him. Ciel was right,

His father was responsible for ruining his life.

 


	5. Cats and Eyes

**Contracts and Cake:**

**Chapter 5:**

It's him…

Ciel found his way back to consciousness and opened his eye to find that he was lying in an unfamiliar bed in an unknown room. As he looked around the room at the dark blue walls decorated with photos of cats he realised that, for some reason he was in Sebastian's room.

Then the memories of what had happened earlier came creeping back to him.

He had entered the library to look at the Michaelis family portraits. When he had found the most recent one he had known immediately that it was the face of that man that had ruined his previous life. A combination of fear, panic and shock at driven him to slump on the floor in a panic attack. Then Sebastian had coming running in and he had informed him what his father had done and after that he had passed out.

Where was Sebastian now? Ciel wondered as he opened the door and walked along the upstairs hallway with an aching head and a nauseous feeling in his stomach- he knew his partnership with Sebastian was over- he had seen the look of horror on his face when Sebastian had looked down at him.

Silently, or he hoped he was, Ciel crept down the stairs, down the hallway and to the entryway without seeing Sebastian. As cold hearted as Ciel though himself to be he knew he couldn't ask someone to kill their own father just for him.

As he slipped on his boots, ready to leave, a pair of black clad arms slid around his chest.

"Why are you leaving?" Sebastian asked and let go of his

"It's okay to break the contract," Ciel said softly as he stood in the doorway. "I'm not going to ask you to kill you father on my behalf."

Without speaking Sebastian grabbed Ciel's hand and dragged him back to the library and pushed him against the wall with an expressionless face. After a few seconds of silence he smirked suddenly.

"Ciel, a contract is a contract. We are both bound by it and it was designed for our advantages and I am certainly not missing out on claiming my price," he winked as Ciel flushed red. "Besides I'm adopted and I really don't care about my father."

"But-"

"No buts Ciel," Sebastian said, placing a finger on the boy's lips. "I was only adopted as an exercise in public relations and because Angela can't have children; they need an heir to take over Ash's company when the time comes which I simply don't want to do. Another factor in their decision was simply that I have the same surname as them."

"B-"

"I said no buts," he sighed and pulled his finger away to let Ciel speak.

"How can you say that even if they aren't your real parents? My aunt is not my mother, but I don't want to kill her," Ciel said, beginning to think that he was still asleep and this conversation was a dream.

"Your aunt is kind to you and actually cares about you as a person. My "parents" just see me as a pawn that they can order around and as the heir that will take over their company when they get too old. They told me all of this when they adopted me and I've being wanting to get even for over 10 years."

"Why did you give me that look of horror when I told you it was him?"

In reply Sebastian grabbed a jar from the nearby table and handed it to Ciel. When Ciel looked closely at it and realised it was a human eye floating in some kind of liquid preservative. Upon an even closer examination he recognised the eye and flinched when he realised that it was his missing eye. Sebastian relieved him of the jar in case in fainted again.

"That's why I gave you that look. I remembered that this has always been on the desk in the study. My father, Ash told me that it was there as a reminder of the moment when he destroyed his biggest rival. I never knew that he did it in the way he did and I always thought that it was a fake eye."

Ciel looked away and gazed at the landscape outside the window, remembering his old, happy life when he grew up with nothing serious to worry about. Now he was a grouchy teenager carrying around a lot of problems that self harmed as an outlet for his depression and anger. Ash Michaelis was responsible for all of that.

"Where are your parents now?" he turned his gaze back to face Sebastian.

"Paris. They are coming back next week. For now I think that we should go through all of Ash's papers to look for clues about the attack and what he gained from it besides the obvious and how we can get revenge," Sebastian suggested and beckoned for Ciel to follow him.

The study was not a modern study. The desk and chair were made of a dark wood and the walls were panelled with wood. The archaic décor did not match the age of the house, Ciel noted.

"Sebastian, what was wrong with whoever designed this house? Your house is blatantly not Victorian so what is with the décor?" Ciel asked as he absorbed all the details of the room.

Sebastian looked up from picking the locks on the desk drawers to answer.

"For some reason my parents are obsessed with the Victorian Era and Angela designed all the rooms to be in that style. I wouldn't allow her to do anything to my bedroom."

An hour passed and the pair hadn't made any progress. They had found evidence that proved Ash was a corrupt businessman, but they hadn't found anything connected to the Phantomhive family.

Sebastian was close to giving up on his search of the desk when he noticed a tiny wormhole in the bottom of the deepest drawer. He pushed the hairpin that he had been using as a lock pick into the hole and watched as the bottom of the drawer slid away to reveal a secret compartment full of documents. He picked them up and began to read.

"Your father's company, Funtom, who owns it now?" he enquired as he came across an interesting document.

"The will stated that it would go to me, but if he died before I reached the age of 18 then it would go to the closest living relation which is my Aunt. She's never mentioned anything about Funtom, but it's obviously not doing anything right now, I think she is waiting until I'm 18 to hand it over to me."

Sebastian waved a piece of paper at Ciel.

"You're wrong. She sold half of it as well as half the shares to a certain Ash Michaelis who merged it with his company."

Not believing what he was hearing Ciel snatched it and read it for himself.

"…sold in 2006. That was just after I started living with her. Why did she sell it?"

"Judging by how protective she is of you I would say that he threatened your life unless she sold it."

"If he did that then why had she let you become friends with me? The surname Michaelis isn't exactly common so she should know that you are his son."

Sebastian gave him a knowing look. "She's a doctor Ciel. Every doctor knows the laws of Mendel."

"Ah, I should have guessed earlier. 2 parents with purple eyes and grey hair cannot give birth to an offspring with black hair and red eyes. Sorry for doubting you."

"That's okay. You were panicked and you scared me when you passed out," Sebastian said and put his arms around Ciel.

For once Ciel did not try to pull away. He had a good enough reason to put up with Sebastian and his tendency to touch him. Sebastian was going to destroy his life for his revenge. So out of gratitude he allowed himself to be hugged and patted on the head.

That was the only reason. There wasn't any other reason or so he thought.

* * *

"Hai, arigato. Sayonara Tanaka-san," Ciel said in fluent Japanese and put the phone down.

Sebastian placed a teacup in front of Ciel.

"Who was that? I didn't know you could speak Japanese," he observed admirably. The boy was still full of surprises.

"Sukoshi hansemas*," Ciel answered and switched back to English. "That was Tanaka. He used to be a kind of butler when my parents were alive. I wanted to check some details about the fire with him as he still lives in the area."

He paused to take a sip of what Sebastian had given him which caused him to make a face and gulp his mouthful down hurriedly.

"What is this?"

The dark haired one looked pointedly out the window at the dark sky lined with stars.

"It's getting late and if you are intending to stay up for most of the night then you need lots of caffeine. Tea is simply not strong enough. Since you have so much of a sweet tooth I mixed sugar, coffee and hot chocolate together."

Ciel smiled at him, touched that he had tried to adapt coffee to suit his tastes.

"Have you called your aunt yet to tell her that you're staying over?"

Sebastian winced at what her reaction would be if he hadn't and what she would do to him. He had a feeling that she was very skilled with a knife.

"I did. She didn't seem to mind and told me to have as much fun as I could for some reason. By the way, where am I going to sleep?"

"My bed of course," the known sadist answered as if it were obvious.

Catching Ciel's horrified look he rolled his eyes. "It's a double bed so we just have to keep to different sides. I normally sleep with some of my cats so I'm used to having things next to me and I don't move around a lot. "

"Hmm…"

It was easy for Sebastian to get Ciel into bed with him. He simply waited for Ciel to fall asleep over a document he was reading and carefully carried him upstairs. Unfortunately for him Ciel snapped wide awake when he was trying to take some of the boy's clothes off.

"What is going on? I though the undressing came at the end," Ciel demanded with a blushing face and moved Sebastian's hand away from his body.

"You can't sleep in your clothes. You will get hot and it won't be very comfortable," Sebastian explained, fully aware of how dodgy it had looked.

"Fine, I will change, but I will do it myself and in the bathroom," Ciel said and stormed out the room, holding the spare pair of pyjamas that Sebastian had been going to dress him in.

A few minutes later he returned in a pair of blue oversized pyjamas with cats on which made him look exactly like a 10 year old. Sebastian smiled at the sight which was a complete juxtaposition to the sour expression Ciel was wearing.

"You look very cute Ciel. It's very late so we should be getting to bed now. You can take the left side."

Hesitantly Ciel climbed in and pulled the cover up. Already he could feel Sebastian's body heat next to him and he knew his face was already red. It had only been 30 seconds; how was he going to last the entire night?

As Sebastian switched of the bedside light Ciel rolled over so he was facing away from him Sebastian who noticed and smirked. His toy had begun blushing whenever he got close to him or when he made innuendos which showed the boy was not adverse to him.

Of course now that he was lying next to his toy he was having trouble keeping his dirty thoughts under control. He couldn't do much to him without breaking the contract, but there were still some options left open. Then he shook his head to banish the thought as, if he was caught he would lose Ciel's tentative trust.

Luckily for him an option presented itself an hour later. Ciel had just fallen asleep and had begun to thrash around, trapped in a nightmare. As he thrashed around his body moved closer to Sebastian who was more than willing to close the gap.

He put his arms around him and patted his head to calm him down. Ciel stopped twitching and his breathing slowed as he settled down. Sebastian felt his forehead which was hot and moved his fringe off so it wouldn't stick to the sweat.

On instinct his fingers found Ciel's lips in the dark and he moved his lips down to kiss them marvelling at how soft they were although the taste of chocolate was a little off putting. In his sleep Ciel made a contented noise like a cat making Sebastian smile and kiss him again.

The next morning Ciel was the first to wake and got a shock when he opened his eyes to find Sebastian's face a centimetre from his. Then he realised Sebastian's arms were wrapped around him. He muffled a gasp and grabbed Sebastian's arms to try and get them off him, but they were too heavy for him.

Sebastian groaned and woke up. "Hello Ciel," he said sleepily. "What are you trying to do to me?"

A vein pulsed on Ciel's forehead. "I think I should be asking you that question. Let go of me now!"

Sebastian blinked, remembered why he was in that position and thought of a way to use it to his advantage.

"I'll let you go if you tell me what the rings that are underneath the loose floorboard in your room are for."

At least he hadn't asked for anything dodgy, Ciel thought gratefully.

"The rings have been passed down through the Phantomhive family or generations. They survived the fire and were given to me. I don't wear them because I don't consider myself to be a proper Phantomhive."

As he pondered the answer he had been given Sebastian withdrew his arms and let Ciel go.

"Why do you not consider yourself to be a Phantomhive?"

Ciel stood up and faced away from him. "I haven't fought against the one that sullied my name and I'm still helpless."

"You're fighting now for yourself. You should wear those rings, the moment is going to come soon now that you have me to help," Sebastian got out of bed and clasped his hand. "It's a new day and we need to formulate a plan. We have just less than a week."

Ciel allowed himself to be taken by the hand, reassured now that he was finally going to do something against Ash Michaelis.

After breakfast Ciel drew up a list of people that he could contact to ask to help him in his fight whilst Sebastian hacked Ash's records on the computer.

"I guess I'm going to have to contact a few of my father's underworld contacts," Ciel said to himself as he wrote down names. "The more shady the better. What was that Chinese weirdo with the lapdog called again…? Lau, I think."

"You know, I'm sure a person like your pink loving cousin would scare Ash the most," Sebastian commented.

"I'm leaving Lizzie out of it of course. Could you somehow entice your foster parents to the former Phantomhive estate? It is a Victorian style mansion and Tanaka said that the structure was mainly undamaged."

"So you want to end it where it all started… How apt."

Sebastian wondered whether it really was going to be the end and he would be able to claim his price. Or whether Ash would outdo them and Ciel would lose his life and he would lose the price he had been longing for.

* * *

 

***= I speak a little. (I took that phrase from my Japanese phrasebook which very helpful when I took it to Japan and I'm assuming that the phrase is correct.)**

**I'm also assuming that most reader know what "Hai" and "Arigato" mean. Just ask if you don't.**


	6. Angel Cake and Lemon Meringue

**Contracts and Cake:**

**Chapter 6:**

Ciel sat outside his house on the doorstep and watched the sun rise, wondering if it would be the last time he would be able to see it. Silently, he watched the glowing ball of the light illuminate the landscape in pretty oranges and yellows. He wished that he had gotten up early enough to watch the sunrise before now.

He held his hands out in front of him so the light bounced off his rings. Sebastian had been right- he had the right to wear them now.

As if on cue the front door slammed shut behind him and Sebastian sat down next to Ciel.

"Everything is ready at the fire site and I just made the call to Ash," Sebastian informed him,

"Is he coming?"" Ciel asked, still looking up at the sky.

"Yes. He was unwilling at first, then as planned I said it had belonged to a family called Phantomhive and that I was friends with their son. After that he seemed jumpy and agreed to come. He's probably making calls to all his friends now."

"It's inconvenient that he will be in his guard, but if you say that it is the only way to get him there, then I believe you."

"It is. He's been suspicious of me ever since the incident with Mey-Rin," Sebastian answered and held out his hand to Ciel. "Let's go. Your aunt is waiting in the car."

After a second Ciel took a deep breath and took the offered hand.

"In case we don't survive this I will give you a few compliments: you make good desserts and I suppose you're a good kisser, slightly," he said awkwardly with a red face.

Sebastian smiled. "Thank you. Just for you I packed a selection of desserts in the car and I made a flask of Earl Grey Hot Chocolate."

Ciel took one last glance at the house he had lived in for 6 years and walked out onto the pavement with Sebastian. If they made it out alive, he resolved to make Sebastian his butler.

The car journey to the Phantomhive estate seemed to last an age for Ciel, but he put it down to nerves and the fact that his aunt clearly wasn't happy with being roped into the plan or him trying to get revenge in the first place. He ignored her glances at him in the rear view mirror and spent half the journey eating Angel Cake and staring out the window. In addition to his aunt not talking, Sebastian was strangely silent as well.

After they stopped for a toilet break Angeline broke the silence.

"Ciel, you know you don't have to do this. We can just go back home," she suggested desperately as she pulled onto the motorway. "As for you Sebastian, I don't know how you agreed to do all this against your step-father."

Sebastian cast a glance at her and looked down again. They needed her co-operation so they had explained the facts to her, neglecting to mention anything about the contract.

"Aunt Angelina, what can we do? Just turn back and wait until he threatens us again to obtain the rest of the company? We have to end it now," Ciel protested.

Angelina stopped behind a long line of cars that were stuck in a queue.

"I know that we are sort of doing the right thing, as what he did to my sister and you was barbaric, but I just don't like it."

"We can't exactly report him to the Police, can we?"

"He is right Miss Durless," Sebastian interjected, "He would just bribe his way out of it. This is the only way."

Angeline sighed. "I know that you are both right. It's just that I feel like a failure as an aunt and a sister. I took the easy way out when he threatened me."

Ciel undid his seatbelt and patted her on the shoulder. "Don't worry, you're a good doctor- my head has fully healed and I hear you're fun at parties, Madame Red."

In his seat Sebastian smirked and leaned over to whisper to her, "You were right about him knowing, you are good at some things."

"Thank you Ciel and put your seatbelt back on for god's sake. Seatbelts save lives- it's useless if you died before you even arrived."

"So you're back to normal then," Ciel smiled and returned to his second slice of lemon meringue pie.

No one in the car felt like smiling when they finally reached the grounds of the former Phantomhive estate. Angelina parked her car on the drive and they all got out. Sebastian opened the boot and took out a briefcase.

"He should be here in half an hour. That's just enough time to set up," Sebastian said, checking the time on his watch.

Angelina nodded. "All right. I'm sorry that I can't do much to assist either of you. If it goes wrong, just run away and forget your pride. I'm leaving now and good luck."

The pair watched as she got back in the car after kissing Ciel on the head and shaking Sebastian's hand and drove away.

"Lau should be waiting inside, he sent a text earlier," Ciel said and began to walk up the drive to the place where his cursed life had begun.

* * *

 

Half an hour later Ash and Angela Michaelis arrived to find their adopted son waiting outside the Phantomhive mansion for them.

"Hello, Father and Mother, how was Paris?" he asked politely as they stepped out the car.

"Profitable," was Ash's curt response.

"Why have you brought us here, Sebastian?" Angela asked, smoothing out her lilac dress. "You obviously have an ulterior motive if you are friends with the Phantomhive boy."

" _Ciel_ is inside. He had a proposition for you."

Ash narrowed his eyes. "Really? Lead the way then."

Ciel Phantomhive sat down on the hard ground of the area where the living room used to be and winced at the charred bricks of the walls that surrounded him. The furniture had been completely destroyed in the fire and the walls were full of large holes and there were dried pools of blood on the floor that still hadn't faded after 6 years. He checked that the pieces on the chessboard in front of him were laid out correctly and that he had everything that he needed.

He heard footsteps approaching and his heartbeat quickened as the man who had gouged his eye out came into sight along with the woman who had held him down. His hands balled into fists.

"Hello Ciel. It's been nearly 6 years since I last saw you and you haven't grown at all," Ash smirked and spotted the chess board. "I see that you are still playing games."

"This won't be an ordinary game," Ciel answered evenly, ignoring the insults. "Sebastian, explain the rules."

Sebastian motioned for his adoptive father to sit down opposite Ciel and took out 2 documents from the briefcase that was next to Ciel. Angela stayed lurking by the burnt door frame.

"The game is standard chess. As for the prizes: if you win, you will obtain the rest of Funtom- this document already has the necessary signatures and you will also get the deeds to this house and the surrounding land." Sebastian held up the second piece of paper.

"What would I want with a crumbling ruin?" Ash snorted.

"I want it," Angela said from the doorway. "It can be rebuilt and I could design the interior to be completely Victorian as the original structure is still standing."

"Fine. What happens if the brat wins?"

"I get to kill both of you," Sebastian replied with a smile.

"You will ruin your life if you do that to your parents," Ash said vaguely as he calculated the risks. "I agree to play, but if I win, Sebastian, you will have to gouge out the brat's other eye and kill him."

Sebastian shot a questioning glance at Ciel who frowned and then nodded.

"We agree to your terms."

Somewhere in the ruins a crow cawed, setting the eerie tone to the scene. If either person lost they would have to pay a heavy price.

Ash stared at Ciel, suspicious of how easily he had accepted a change in terms.

"To make sure you don't play any tricks, we should have a mediator for our game- Angela can do-"

"I have already thought of that," Sebastian interrupted and held up his hand. "Lau, if you please."

A head poked through an opening in the wall and a tall lanky Asian male stepped into the space followed by a younger Asian female. They were both attired in traditional Chinese clothing.

"Hello Mr Michaelis, I'm Lau," the male introduced himself ad bowed. "I will be moderating your match in case either of you cheat."

"How do I know that you're not on the brat's side?"

Lau looked puzzled. "Brat? Ah, the Earl- I have never met him until today when he called me so I'm not supporting him or you."

"If you say so. I'll take white so I make the first move," Ash said finally and moved one of his pawns 2 spaces forward. "What's the girl for?"

"Ran Mao? You will find out if you break the rules," Lau winked. "Now, what game are you playing?"

7 moves later Ash and Ciel had an equal number of pieces left, but Ciel was closer to check as he had taken most of Ash's powerful pieces. He estimated that he could probably force Ash's king into checkmate in 5 more moves if the game was played fairly. Of course he knew Ash never played fairly and if his opponent was going to cheat then now would be the time he was going to do it.

He cast a glance at his opponent who didn't seem to have much attention on the game as his eyes were fixed in another place. Ciel followed his line of sight and realised it was fixed on where Angela had been previously standing by the doorway. Then he saw that Sebastian had disappeared too.

Ash noted his unease. "Is there something wrong, Ciel? I think you were a little too focused on your little chess game. You failed to notice some of the things going on around you."

"Damn you…"

Ash picked up his King and twirled it around in his hand. "Since Sebastian nearly killed a girl and came close to damaging my reputation I hired someone to keep an eye on him. Imagine my surprise when it was reported that he had made friends with a boy named Ciel Phantomhive," he said and reached out to stroke Ciel's face. "You even spent a night at each other's houses so I knew you two were definitely close."

Ciel pulled away in disgust and knocked over the remaining chess pieces. There was no way the game was going to continue anymore.

"I was suspicious so I asked the person I hired to search your house and mine and he found that you were planning to kill me."

"So you have known what we were going to do from the beginning?"

"Yes. Angela has taken care of Sebastian and I just need to take care of you. And don't bother calling for help- I've already bribed your Chinese acquaintance to turn a blind eye."

Ciel looked desperately over at Lau who averted his gaze to the sky guiltily and then left the way he came with Ran Mao. There was obviously not going to be any help from that quarter. He was on his own again.

"So after killing my parents 6 years ago and gouging out one of my eyes you're here to take my other eye and kill me?" Ciel shouted angrily. "Why did you even do it in the first place?"

"I had gone bankrupt," Ash shouted back and drew a knife from his pocket. "It was the only way out and I had always hated your smug parents with their perfect son. So I killed them, but I was interrupted when I was about to kill you."

"So it was out of greed and jealously," Ciel concluded and backed away from Ash and his knife.

"I suppose it was," he answered and began to advance on his prey. "Angela and Pluto have probably finished with your lover now. You can join him on the other side."

They glared at each other for a few moments and time seemed to freeze. Ash with a knife in his hand and Ciel in a defensive stance. Then the sounds of falling stone and a dog's bark punctuated the silence and they unfroze.

Ash lunged at Ciel, aiming at his stomach so he would take a while to die. As he did something red flashed in front of him and his lunge stabbed someone else instead of his intended target.

"Madame Red!" He gasped in surprise and drew out the knife.

She winced in pain before drawing a knife of her own out her pocket and skilfully slashed his chest in one blow. Then she collapsed to the ground with her eyes closed, satisfied that she had maimed him enough and protected her nephew properly.

"Aunt An, I'm sorry, I didn't predict that he would do that," Ciel apologised as the blood poured out of the wound on her stomach. "You should be all right, it's not too serious. "

Her mobile phone fell out of her pocket and Ciel picked it up and walked over to Ash who was lying gasping in pain in a pool of his own blood, annoyed with his failure.

"You see Ash, your confession was recorded by my aunt who edited it to blur out my face and then sent it to all her contacts and posted it on a few video sharing websites," Ciel explained, pressing the play button on the aforementioned video.

"…So I killed them, but I was interrupted when I was about to kill you…"

Ash groaned even louder, he hadn't considered the option that the plans that he had seen were fakes. He had assumed that they weren't smart enough to trick him and now he was paying the price.

"As a final nail in your coffin, we know you married your sister which is illegal and covered it up," Sebastian said, returning to Ciel's side. His face was covered in cuts and bruises and his clothes were a mess, but he was otherwise unharmed. "We have proof and we sent it this morning to some of your investors. Even if you don't die here or get arrested, your life as you know it is over."

"W-Where's Angela?" Ash croaked. "And you can't get away with killing me here. It would be obvious it was you because of that video."

"Your sister is dead," Sebastian informed him as he stood over him. "Along with Pluto. A wall collapsed and crushed them, intentionally of course- I lured them to a weak spot. As for murdering you- we have a scapegoat. It seems like you didn't know that Lau is the head a Chinese Drug syndicate and is very good at evading the Police."

"I wish we had never adopted you," Ash spat, beginning to feel his life draining out his body.

"Too bad. You couldn't have a child with your sister because of the almost certain possibility that the child would have deformities so you adopted me."

As the two argued Ciel examined his aunt and realised that the wound was worse than he had initially thought it was as she hadn't opened her eyes and he didn't have time to waste by exchanging insults with Ash.

"Sebastian, finish him off."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I order you to kill him!" Ciel shouted and bent down next to his aunt, not even caring that his trousers were soaking up the blood.

Sebastian cast a glance at him to make sure he was okay before looking down at the step-father he had loathed ever since he had been adopted. He knew he would have no regrets about killing him.

He picked up Ash' fallen knife, looked him in the eye disdainfully and smiled brightly before stabbing him straight through the heart.

"Yes my Lord."

The price was now his to claim, but he knew he didn't need to make anymore contracts. He had Ciel. But before he claimed his price he needed to rectify his relationship with Ciel.

Over the past 6 days he had come to realise that the boy was more than a toy to him.

* * *

**I decided to make Angela and Ash brother and sister because they are the same person in the anime and one of my friends who likes manga seems isn't fond of the Sebastian and Ciel pairing because of the age difference, but instead of saying it was lolicon she accidently said incesutous so I decided to add an incestuous pairing just for her.**


	7. Paying the Price

**Contracts and Cake:**

**Chapter 7**

The time for him to pay the price had come.

Ciel sat on his bed looking morosely up at the clock, waiting for Sebastian to come and claim his "price."

He knew that he owed it to the freak-sadist who had given up his rich foster parents and a life of freedom all for him. No, he gave it all up so he could sleep with me, he corrected himself.

"He really is a freak," he said out loud.

It was one o'clock in the morning, the morning after he had got revenge. He had spent the rest of the day with his aunt in the hospital whilst Sebastian explained everything to the Police, about how a random Chinese man and woman had attacked their family members whilst they had been visiting the ruins together. They had arranged enough evidence to make Lau the scapegoat and Ciel had lied about posting the video on the internet- he just told as he had to torment him in his final moments, so he and Sebastian didn't have to worry about being arrested for a premeditated double murder.

Angelina hadn't regained consciousness when Ciel had been at her side in hospital, but the doctors had said that she would eventually wake up and recover. Ciel was glad of that; he didn't want to lose his favourite family member.

As he changed out of his blood splattered clothes he heard footsteps coming up the stairs and he hastily pulled on a clean shirt and pair of trousers before he opened his door to let Sebastian in.

"Hello Ciel," he said subduedly and looked closer at him, noticing there was something different about him. "You're not wearing your eye patch."

Ciel's hand automatically moved to pull his hair over his right eye socket.

"It's okay," Sebastian said softly. "You don't have to worry about hiding it from me."

Ciel frowned, wondering why Sebastian had changed his attitude towards him. Usually he was sarcastic and sadistic, but tonight he seemed more subdued and quiet. He chalked it up to being nerves.

"Are you here to take your price?" he asked, to move their conversation away from his eye which was still a very sensitive subject for him.

Sebastian paused for a moment to choose his words carefully.

"Yes, I am, but I need to tell you something first. I like you a lot… I mean I really like you… I love you?"

"You don't sound sure," observed the object of his affections. What was he up to now, Ciel wondered.

Sebastian made an annoyed face and turned his head away in embarrassment. Telling someone that you loved them was harder than it looked.

"What I mean to say is that I l-love you. I never said this to anyone else so it feels funny and it is a new experience for me, but I'm pretty sure I've chosen the right person."

Sebastian's embarrassment- which he had never seen before; convinced Ciel that he was indeed telling the truth. However now that he knew how Sebastian felt about him he knew that he could control him which was something he had been longing to do ever since Sebastian had started following him around and offering him a contract. He cocked his head on one side and met Sebastian's eyes.

"I'm slightly fond of you. You make good cakes and I like you more than I used to like Sebastian the dog," he teased with a wink.

"Stop teasing me, Ciel," Sebastian said and pushed him down on the bed and began to attack the boy's mouth with his lips.

After a minute or so Sebastian drew his head away from Ciel's to observe the effect of his kisses. Needless to say, he was pleased to observe that Ciel's face was beet red and his breath was coming out in short gasps.

"Did you enjoy that, Ciel?" he asked playfully, with a wink.

"…Perhaps" Ciel muttered under his breath, overwhelmed by the fury of Sebastian's kisses. If this was only the beginning of it all, how was he going to cope with the rest of it, he asked himself as he struggled to control his face temperature.

The black haired teenager smirked. "You little liar." He cupped Ciel's face with his hand. "I bet I can make you tell the truth…"

"Se..bastian," he gasped as his mouth was cut off again and Sebastian pushed his tongue in, taking advantage of Ciel's parted lips and touched the roof of his mouth tantalisingly.

"What about now?" He whispered into Ciel's ear.

"Maybe," was the breathless reply.

Sebastian rolled his eyes. He had obviously not gone far enough yet to please Earl Ciel Phantomhive, although the boy's face had turned a delicious shade of red.

"You are asking for it now."

A very sore Ciel Phantomhive became foggily aware of a throbbing pain in his backside as he struggled to wake up. He blinked and realised that he was unusually cold, even if it was autumn. Then he realised that his bedcover was lying on the floor next to him and he was naked.

He looked beside him after noticing that there was a source of heat next to him and saw that Sebastian was in the same naked state and momentarily enjoyed the view before checking the clock.

It was now 1 o'clock in the afternoon, 12 hours since Sebastian had confessed to him. Ciel vaguely remembered glimpsing the clock when Sebastian had been on top of him, which had been at 5 o'clock meaning that they had been busy for at least 4 hours, he flushed in embarrassment just thinking about it.

Ciel stood up and winced at the pain as he walked over to his mirror. He gasped at the sight of his reflection. His hair was a mess, it looked like a bird's nest and his empty eye socket was clearly visible. The most surprising thing was that his chest was covered with love bites.

He couldn't quite get over the fact that Sebastian had confessed to him and then proceeded to sleep with him, a skinny midget with one eye and an unapproachable personality. Sebastian had taken his first time and his first kiss and he had come to realise over the past week how colourful his life had become since he had met Sebastian.

Before Sebastian and starting school he had never left the house apart from trips to the hospital and to see relations. The only people he had talked to were psychologists, home tutors and his relatives. Now he had someone else to interact with that wasn't there to mentally dissect his brain or to teach him, he had someone that loved him and he loved that person back.

In his sleep Sebastian groaned and turned over, giving Ciel an eyeful. Like a mother, Ciel placed his bedcover on top of him to keep his lover warm and got dressed as quietly as he could.

5 minutes later Sebastian stirred and sat up sharply, wondering why he was in Ciel's bed. Then he saw the stains on the sheet and immediately remembered.

He had obtained his price.

If he didn't know that he loved his cute contractee then he would be willing to walk right out the door, but as he knew his feelings, he wasn't going to leave.


	8. Epilogue

**Contracts and Cake:**

**Chapter 8:**

Sebastian patted down his tangled hair and stared down at his chest, admiring the single love bite that Ciel had given him. Of course he had given the boy a lot more, but one from Ciel was worth more considering how shy he was.

Unable to help it, he burst into a smile, then he remembered what he had done the previous day and sobered. He had killed his foster parents and narrowly avoided a murder charge and was likely to end up back in a children's home. Hopefully it would be nearby so he could still go to the same school and see Ciel.

As he pondered his situation the door was pushed open and Ciel entered the room dressed in a white shirt and a pair of black shorts holding two steaming patterned teacups. He flushed immediately when he saw that Sebastian was still naked.

The naked teenager was very amused by the cute reaction. "Why are you so shy? You saw everything last night and I saw everything of yours." He helpfully struck a pose on the bed as if to remind him.

Ciel's mouth twitched and he concentrated on trying to keep his body's reaction under control. He held out the cup in his left hand to Sebastian.

"It's coffee and contains no added sugar or hot chocolate powder."

Sebastian sat up and accepted the offered cup. Ciel sat down next to him, wincing as he did.

"How painful is it?" Sebastian asked concernedly, worried that he might have gone too far.

"Painful. What about you?"

"Not at all," he replied before taking a sip of coffee. "You are very shy and you got most of it."

Ciel's face flashed a brilliant red as he remembered details.

"What's with the outfit?" the coffee drinker decided to change the subject for the sake of Ciel- he would continue that one later when he wasn't so sore.

"Aunt Ann brought it for me a few days ago and said I would look adorable in it. I was hoping that it might cheer her up when she wakes up if she sees me wearing it. I refuse to wear the knee high socks and high heeled shoes though," Ciel explained and pulled the hems of his shorts down, self conscious about his pale skinny legs. "What do you think?"

"I would prefer it with cat ears," Sebastian considered thoughtfully, leaning a little closer. "Or perhaps with no clothes at all."

"You pervert-" Ciel was silenced by Sebastian's forceful lips moving against his.

After a minute of kisses Sebastian paused to let Ciel get his breath back before moving in to attack him again. As he started unbuttoning Ciel's blouse the phone rang, punctuating the seductive atmosphere.

"It must be the hospital," Ciel said breathlessly as Sebastian released him to allow him to leave the room to answer it.

If it hadn't been an important call Sebastian would have ignored the noise and continued. Those shorts really did make him look cuter, had it been a manga he would have probably spurted blood out of his nose by now. Sebastian still wondered why a 16 year old with the body of a 12 year old boy had the effect on him.

The subject of his thought burst into the room as he was putting on his clothes from the day before. He immediately knew from the smile on Ciel's face that it was good news.

"Aunt Angelina woke up five minutes ago," Ciel informed him happily. "She needs to stay in the hospital for a while to recover, but the doctor said I can visit her regularly."

Sebastian smiled. Ever since Angelina Durless had been stabbed her fate had been looming over them as her death would affect them both.

"Aunt Ann asked me a few days ago about what I thought of her adopting you," Ciel said suddenly, on the spur of the moment. He hadn't been intending to tell Sebastian until he knew more information about his aunt's condition, but he couldn't just let Sebastian worry about his future.

Sebastian blinked. "Is that true? And what did you say?"

"I agreed, but of course we need your permission and she isn't in the condition to be signing papers right now… Anyway, what do you think?"

"Well, we would be step-brothers so having sex with you would feel a little incestuous…"

A vein pulsed in Ciel's forehead. "Just answer the damn question!"

**4 Months later**

"Ciel! Get in the car or you will be late this time!" Angelina Durless shouted from the driveway, a little quieter than she would have done four months ago.

Ciel pelted down the stairs, hurriedly flattening his hair to hide his eye patch and ran into the kitchen to pick up his lunch. His step-brother/boyfriend handed him his lunch with a playful smile.

"I swear that you are late every day, Ciel. Maybe I should stop visiting you at night so you can get more sleep," Sebastian suggested and leaned in closer. "We'll have to do it during the day though."

He grabbed Ciel's face and kissed him.

"Sebastian and Ciel, I don't care what you are doing to each other, just get in the car!" Angelina shouted, ruining the moment.

The pair parted reluctantly. Despite living with Sebastian for four months Ciel was still not in control of his blushes and still went bright red whenever Sebastian did anything to him.

His aunt sighed as they got in the car.

"Why do we have to go through this every morning? Sebastian, just wake Ciel up on time tomorrow and don't be persuaded by his puppy dog looks or anything he says."

"I'm sorry," Sebastian apologised before ruffling Ciel's hair. "But I have trouble saying no to him."

"That is obvious," Angelina remarked dryly. "Have you got your lunch, Ciel? I hope it is not just cake like it was yesterday."

Sebastian flinched awkwardly. He had been planning to make Ciel a healthy lunch, but Ciel had persuaded him otherwise and he had ended up in trouble with his step-mother for it and he had been intending to stay on her good side.

Angeline Durless had been discharged from hospital two weeks ago. During her stay she had officially adopted him and he was grateful that she had gotten over her evident mistrust of him and was allowing him to stay with Ciel. He was also very sure that she knew he was sleeping with her nephew- he had given Ciel some very obvious love bites. So he was trying his best to stay on her good side; he had seen how good she was with a knife.

Whilst thinking about knives, Sebastian glanced unconsciously at Ciel. The day before he had checked underneath the loose floorboard in Ciel's bedroom and found that the knife was still there, albeit with a layer of dust which showed that Ciel was still unsure about his life in the long run. He resolved to have a talk with him about their relationship later.

Catching his glance Ciel gave him a sharp look. He had a good idea what Sebastian was thinking about. It was a subject that he had been avoiding dealing with- he told himself he was just keeping the knife as insurance. He also knew that Sebastian was going to confront him soon about it. Before that happened he knew he would have to come to terms with everything.

That evening, after dinner and washing up- Angelina had assigned Sebastian to household chores, Sebastian knocked on Ciel's bedroom door to have a talk about his little "habit."

There was no answer so he opened the door to find the room in darkness, with the moonlight being the only source.

"Ciel?" he called out uncertainly.

His sharp eyes perceived a movement by the window and he stepped closer to see Ciel on the floor, hugging his knees with the focal point of his planned conversation (the knife) lying on the floor beside him.

"Ciel?"

The boy looked up at him morosely. "I can't get rid of it. I keep trying to stop…"

To explain he held up his finger with blood slowly dripping from the tip.

Concernedly Sebastian walked towards him and sat down opposite him.

"You have avenged your parents now, your persecutors are dead, and you can live in peace now, Ciel. You have no need to harm yourself now."

Ciel's only response was to look down at the floor.

Sebastian desperately tried another tack.

"There is nothing for you to worry about now. I will protect you, I am here for you."

"That's the problem!" Ciel shouted, coming back to life. "How do I know that you aren't just going to get bored of me and walk out. You've done it to other people before."

Sebastian flinched, aghast at the accusation. Was that what Ciel was now afraid of? He couldn't blame him though. His past history would never work in his favour. He had left a lot of people like Grell and Mey-Rin.

He pulled the boy into his arms, unsure of how to convince him that he was never going to leave him.

"Ciel, I promise that I am not going to get tired of you and leave you. I love you," he said softly.

He picked up Ciel's cut finger and sucked the blood out whilst holding Ciel's gaze.

"You really don't need to do this anymore, Ciel."

Ciel sighed. "I will only throw the knife away if you make a contract with me to always stay by my side," he said, sounding more like his usual self.

Sebastian smiled at the irony of the situation. Ciel had been unwilling to make a contract with him in the first place and now he was offering to make one with him.

"You really don't need to do this, but if it will convince you… I agree to your terms."

Ciel silently picked up the knife, opened the window and took a deep breath. The knife seemed to stick to his hand, but when he thought about Sebastian he mustered up enough courage to throw the knife as far away as he could out of the window. He closed his eyes so he would not see where the knife landed.

Sebastian pulled Ciel by the waist and kissed him happily. Ciel managed to finally whisper a confession between their kisses.

"I love you."

He hadn't told Sebastian yet, but he knew that his new contractee knew.

Sebastian rolled his eyes. "I've been waiting for you to say that for ages. But I know how hard it is to say. Now, would you mind saying it again."

"Hmm, make me."

"I will," Sebastian said and pushed Ciel down. "I am one hell of a pervert after all."

Ciel made a face at Sebastian's words, then he relented. After 6 years of misery and fear about his parent's death and their killers he was finally able to lead a normal life. Or as normal life as he could get.

Not everyone was a teenager Earl and had a boyfriend like Sebastian.

**The End**

 

**Cakes referenced:.**

**Carrot Cake** : a cake which contains carrots. Originates from Sweden

 **Strawberry Shortcake** : a Japanese cake containing cream and strawberries. (Often seen in Manga and Anime. I had it when I went to Japan)

 **Victoria Sponge:**  a sponge cake that was named after Queen Victoria who always had cake with her afternoon tea. Consists of strawberry jam and cream sandwiched between two sponge cakes.

 **Butterfly Cakes** : a variant of English Fairy Cakes, the top of the cake is carved out and cut in half and the hole if filled with a sweet filling, usually cream of buttercream and then the halves are stuck into it to resemble butterfly wings.

 **Angel Cake** : a type of layer cake which originated from Great Britain and consists of two or three layers of sweet sponge cake which are often coloured white, pink and yellow with a thin layer of white cream. It is traditionally sold in long bars or small slices.


	9. Christmas Day extra

**Cuts and Cake**

**Christmas Day extra**

This was inspired by a conversation I overhead between a couple of boys and my chemistry teacher at school. They were all seriously debating what to get their girlfriends for christmas as if it was the most serious subject on earth which amused me and gave me the idea to write this.

This had been my favourite fanfiction to write and I couldn't resist adding an extra chapter.

Crispy, pristine white snowflakes were softly coating the roof of Ciel's house when his aunt asked the very question Ciel had been dreading for several days.

"What are you getting Sebastian for Christmas?"

It was the 20th of December, he and Sebastian had broken up from school and had spent the day decorating the house. Now it was evening. Sebastian was washing the dishes and Ciel and his aunt were in the living room, warmed by the fire and the acres of fairy lights that Sebastian had strung up.

Angelina's question interrupted Ciel's light perusal of "A study in scarlet" and he made a face.

"I-I don't know. He said he wouldn't mind if I didn't get him one."

Angeline stared at her nephew. "What is he getting you?"

"A lifetime supply of Earl Grey tea and Cadbury's hot chocolate," Ciel answered and winced, knowing what his aunt was going to say next.

"Sebastian gave up his care free life for you, narrowly escaped death, is giving you a lifetime supply of caffeine and you aren't even giving him anything!"

Angeline rolled her eyes. She was very fond of her nephew, but sometimes he was a little frustrating.

"But I don't know what he wants…" Ciel muttered.

"What does he like?"

Ciel set aside his book; this interrogation was going to last awhile. He considered everything he knew about Sebastian and came to a hesitant conclusion.

"He likes cats… and me. I'm allergic to cats so that is not an option."

His exasperated aunt sighed and decided to change tack to hopefully give him some ideas.

"What are you getting me for Christmas?"

"That red designer dress I saw you ogling online the other day. I gave them your measurements so its custom made," Ciel answered easily, without much thought.

"See, you can do it," Angelina said triumphantly. "You can use your powers of observation on Sebastian to see what he wants for Christmas. …How do you know my sizes?"

"You told Sebastian when you were drunk last week. I think you need to drink a little less alcohol at those parties you go to. This is the third time that has happened."

When Ciel went up to bed, he robotically changed into his pyjamas, hung his clothes up and brushed his teeth. He grabbed a notebook, took a pen from his desk and began to write possibilities.

_Likes:_

_Cats_

He hesitated before writing " _me_ ". Then he expanded " _cats"._

" _Photo albums of cats, cat related anime, virtual cat games, robotic cat."_

He bit the top of his pen- he was officially out of ideas. Due to his hate of cats (stray ones took up too much of Sebastian's time with him) he was unwilling to actually purchase any of the aforementioned items. Now he was back to square one.

Deciding that he would give up for the day, Ciel sighed and turned out the light so he could get some sleep. He would work on it the next day when he had a clearer mind.

At around midnight Sebastian noiselessly opened the door to check on Ciel. He approached the bed and watching him turn over and make a distressed noise. He sat down on the edge of the bed and stroked his hair to calm him down as he wondered what his source of distress was.

Then his eyes fell on a sheet of paper on Ciel's bedside table that hadn't been there during the day. Sebastian picked it up and went over to Ciel's desk to turn on the light there do he could read it. He read the list with great amusement.

He had overheard Angelina's conversation with Ciel, but he hadn't quite expected this.

"He's really taking this seriously," he muttered out loud.

He smirked and helpfully drew a circle around " _me_ " with a red marker pen and replaced the list where he had found it. That might ease his distress, he decided.

Sebastian kissed Ciel on the forehead before leaving the room as silently as he had entered after saying "goodnight."

Christmas Day was going to be fun.

***

The next morning Ciel woke up slowly, knowing that he was dreading being fully awake for some reason. As his head and eyes cleared he remembered the list.

With a heavy hand he felt for it on his bedside table and rubbed his eye so he could see it properly. When his eyes registered the red circle a huge blush spread up his face.

"Sebastian must have come in last night and seen this," Ciel said out loud and blushed even more at the thought. He didn't know what he was going to say when he saw his step-brother/boyfriend.

Fortunately for him, Sebastian had gone out shopping early to stock up for food over Christmas for a few hours, so Ciel could avoid seeing him for a while. However, instead of seeing Sebastian at breakfast he ended up sitting opposite his cousin, Elizabeth.

"Your bedhead is so adorable!" she squealed happily as she reached for a slice of toast from the rack and generously spread raspberry jam over it.

"Elizabeth, what are you doing here?" he enquired as he took a slice of toast and spread chocolate spread followed by strawberry jam, followed by fresh raspberries.

She shook her finger at him. "It's Lizzie! I came over to drop off your christmas presents. Aunt Ann also told me that you were having trouble finding a present for Sebastian."

Ciel spared a moment to glare at his aunt who was sitting at the other end of the table drinking coffee, before turning back to Lizzie.

"What are you getting him then?"

In reply Elizabeth held up a thin square present. "A Hello Kitty calendar. Aunt Ann mentioned he likes cats so I found something to suit him."

"More like to suit you," Ciel muttered under his breath. "Do you have any ideas for a present from me?"

"Sure! Just let me at your computer!" Lizzie smiled brightly and dragged Ciel out of the kitchen and up the stairs to his bedroom.

"Hmmm, I think you should get that," Lizzie said after five minutes of browsing on ebay.

Ciel sighed. "I don't think that Sebastian would appreciate a pink bonnet with lace, Lizzie."

"You're right- I thought it might suit him since he wears black all the time... Ah! I think that this might work."

Ciel leaned in over her shoulder to see what she had clicked on. He could see why it would work, but he would be embarrassed to try it, especially with his aunt in the house.

"Can you buy a realistic robotic cat at all?" he asked, desperate to change tack so she would not suggest anything else like she was looking at now. An idea was forming in his head, but he would need a ruse to cover up his true intention.

Lizzie considered the question for a few seconds. "I think you can buy them from Japan. I hear that they are quite cute."

"I think I will get one of those," Ciel said and ordered a blue grey one and selected the fastest delivery.

His cousin pouted. "I think you should go with what I suggested."

"I'm also ordering what you suggested. I might send you a photo as your christmas present."

"Yay!"

***

On the morning of Christmas Day, Ciel placed his present for Sebastian under the seven foot twinkling Christmas tree and the other under his own bed.

Angelina opened Sebastian's present to her which was a crate of vintage white and red wine with a cheer.

"I might be going to a party tonight- this will come in useful," she declared excitedly before opening Ciel's present.

She pulled out a long red silk dress with black lace as the trim and roses decorating the skirt and a corset style bodice.

"I might go to the party in this too. I'm definitely going out tonight- you boys will have to entertain yourselves," she said as she left the room to make some phone calls.

"We will be fine," Sebastian assured her and put his arm around Ciel. "Now, are you going to open your presents, Ciel?"

Sebastian handed Ciel a huge elegantly wrapped present. Ciel placed it on the floor, tore off the silver wrapping paper and slit the tape on the cardboard box. Inside were stacks of hot chocolate powder tins and boxes of Earl Grey tea.

He gave Sebastian a shy kiss on the cheek. "Thank you Sebastian."

His boyfriend smiled and gave him a kiss in return. "That's fine. Where would we be if I couldn't choose a good present for my boyfriend?"

Ciel opened his aunt's present which was a box of fresh fairy cakes from his favourite bakery. Lizzie's present was predictably a giant teddy pair holding a red heart with the Ciel's name embroidered on it in white stitching.

Sebastian snorted in amusement. "That's cute."

"Shut up... it has my name on it. Why don't you open your presents now?"

The raven haired teenage picked up Lizzie's present and burst into laughter when he saw what it was. After he unwrapped Angelina's present and refused to tell Ciel what she had given him.

Now it was time for the opening of Ciel's present. Sebastian picked up the final present from under the tree and carefully unwrapped it. When he saw what it was he instantly freed it from its packaging and hugged it.

"It's from Japan and its name is Ciel," Ciel explained and took the cat from him to switch it on. "It responds to instructions and makes noises. It's very boring."

Sebastian took the cat back from him and resumed hugging. "I'm sure it's not."

Ciel scowled, Sebastian was already enamoured with the cat. He wondered if purchasing the cat had really been a good idea.

"Why don't you read the note that is tucked under the collar?" he suggested, attempting not to be jealous against a cat that wasn't even real.

The remainder of Christmas Day was miserable for Ciel. Sebastian kept hold of the cat, even when he was cooking Christmas dinner and when they all sat down to eat he placed it on the empty chair next to him and stroked it at regular intervals. This annoyed Ciel greatly and he knew he definitely regretted purchasing the cat.

At around eight in the evening, Angelina left the house for an all night Christmas party in her new dress and promised to be back sometime before sunrise. This left Ciel, Sebastian and Ciel the robotic cat in the house together.

Ciel decided that he would give up for the day and planned to tamper with the cat when Sebastian's back was turned. He wasn't going to lose his boyfriend to a robotic cat forever.

He tried the set of cat ears the Lizzie had suggested and stared at his reflection in the mirror. He really couldn't see what was so good about cats- they had fur, smelled and he was allergic to them.

Ciel fumed as he got dressed for bed. There was a knock at the door as he took his trousers off, leaving him in his white shirt which fell to his thighs and underwear.

"Come in, " he said tiredly, knowing that he was Sebastian and his bloody robotic cat.

He was correct, Sebastian entered holding the robotic cat and paused when he took in Ciel's appearance; cat ears, bare legs and the top two buttons undone on his shirt.

"You look...cute," he flushed.

Ciel spotted this and inwardly smirked. He had got Sebastian now. Things were now going his way rather than the damn robotic cat. He undid another button and adjusted his cat ears.

"Cute?" He growled.

Sebastian blinked. "More like... sexy. Can I touch your ears?"

Now was the time, Ciel thought. "On the condition you get rid of the cat."

Without any hesitation, Sebastian threw the cat out the doorway and grabbed Ciel's face and fingered the cat ears before forcefully kissing him. Ciel playfully pushed his tongue through Sebastian's lips.

"So, am I cuter than a cat?" Ciel breathed, when they parted for air.

Sebastian pushed him down on the bed and nibbled on his real ear. "You're very cute when you're jealous. It has been very satisfying to watch."

Realisation struck Ciel. "Do you mean to say that you have been fawning over that cat all day to make me jealous," he groaned, now feeling very silly.

"Don't worry, you will always be cuter than a cat to me," Sebastian said sincerely.

Ciel smiled before smirking at the robotic cat in the doorway. The cat had never won and it was going in the bin on boxing day.

"By the way, can I keep the cat? It's fun winding you up."

"No."

***

**Yes, you can get realistic robotic cats with fur.**


End file.
